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M.  no.  Morner 


DEMOCRACY  AND   THE  OVERMAN 


DEMOCRACY  AND  THE 
OVERMAN 


BY 
CHARLES  ZUEBLIN 

Author  of  "  The  Religion  of  a  Democrat  '* 


NEW  YORK 
B.   W.  HUEBSCH 

1910 


Copyright  1910  by 
B.  W.  HUEBSCH 


Printed  in  U.  S.  A. 


dedicated  to  the  memory  op 

those  good  democrats  and  beloved  friends 

Jessie  Bross  and  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 


Sit 
2S 


OVERWORD 

The  American  prototype  of  the  Overman 
of  Nietzsche  is  a  winning  personality  in  the 
sense  of  'heads  I  win,  tails  you  lose.'  He  is 
an  aggressive,  self-satisfied  megalomaniac,  the 
offspring  of  business  and  finance,  but  he  is  the 
best  we  have.  He  only  needs  the  discipline  of 
democracy.  He  is  the  boss  of  hoi  Polloi;  he 
must  be  made  the  servant  of  Demos. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The   Overspecialized   Business 

Man 11 

II.  The      Overestimated      Anglo- 
Saxon       ....     I.     ..     37 

III.  The  Overcomplacent  American     65 

IV.  The  Overthrown  Superstition 

of  Sex      .      .      .      .     i.      .      .     93 

V.  The    Overdue   Wages    of   the 

Overman's  Wife     *.     .     .     .115 

VI.  The   Overtaxed   Credulity  of 

Newspaper  Readers      .      .      .   135 

VII.  The      Overworked      Political 

Platitudes    .     .     i.     .     .     .  157 

VIII.  The  Overlooked   Charters   of 

Cities 193 


THE  OVERSPECIALIZED 
BUSINESS  MAN 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  OVERSPECIALIZED  BUSINESS  MAN 

THE  sway  of  the  business  man  is  well 
nigh  complete.  He  is  the  master  of  in- 
dustry, he  controls  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence and  communication,  he  subsidizes  edu- 
cation and  art  in  his  own  whimsical  fashion, 
he  owns  the  Senate's  boss ;  through  the  Speak- 
er he  manages  the  House,  he  harries  the  Presi- 
dent and  the  Supreme  Court,  he  shapes  the 
moral  code. 

It  is  accepted  as  logical  and  appropriate 
that  the  business  man  should  control  industry, 
but  people  forget  how  recent  is  his  warrant  for 
this.  A  scant  century  and  a  half  mark  his  en- 
tire history.  The  industrialist,  expert  in  man- 
ufacture, is  dependent  on  the  financier  and  the 
man  who  can  market  the  goods.  The  mastery 
of  industry  by  business  is  not  wholly  undesir- 

[11] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

able,  but  neither  is  it  unavoidable.  Whether 
to  the  advantage  or  disadvantage  of  the  peo- 
ple, the  business  man's  control  of  the  means  of 
subsistence  and  communication  is  less  logical. 
The  raw  materials  of  living  ought  surely  to  be 
indirectly  in  the  control  of  the  public,  and  in 
the  more  civihzed  countries  the  means  of  com- 
munication are  regarded  as  public  rather  than 
private  concern.  In  this  country  the  master 
of  transportation  has  been  the  promoter  rather 
than  the  engineer.  Few  street  railways  were 
built  to  carry  people,  and  this  seemingly  ap- 
propriate function  has  fallen  heavily  upon  the 
expert  after  one  or  more  promoters  have 
loaded  up  the  system  with  embarassing  finan- 
cial obligations.  In  the  interest  of  rapid 
economic  development  it  may  be  tempo- 
rarily desirable  to  tolerate  the  rule  of  the 
business  man  over  industry  and  transpor- 
tation, but  why  should  he  direct  politics? 
He  will  himself  hasten  to  say  that  he  stands 
aside  from  affairs  of  state  desiring  only  to  be 
let  alone,  and  exhibiting  contempt  for  those 

[12] 


The  Overspecialized  Business  Man 

who  rely  on  political  support.  In  fact, 
however,  he  is  the  chief  beneficiary  of  pa- 
ternalism; although  he  rarely  holds  office,  he 
subsidizes  the  boss  and  the  office-holders,  but 
not  from  philanthropy. 

With  the  growing  recognition  that  poli- 
tics is  public  business,  we  can  understand 
the  business  man's  interference,  even  if  we 
cannot  condone  it,  but  there  never  has  been 
and  never  will  be  any  reason  why  he 
should  direct  art,  education,  and  religion. 
The  man  of  means  is  conspicuously  devoid  of 
artistic  knowledge,  judged  by  his  home  and 
his  mischievous  patronage  of  art.  He  is  rare- 
ly cultured  and  frequently  uneducated,  and  he 
is  either  ignorant  of,  or  indifferent  to,  the- 
ology. Yet  his  benefactions  determine  the 
quality  of  our  art,  his  position  on  boards  of 
trustees  guides,  often  restricts,  education,  and 
only  the  more  courageous  preachers  and  priests 
venture  to  expound  ethical  doctrines  which  are 
unpalatable  to  the  business  world. 

Is  he  not,  in  truth,  the  overman? 
[13] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

The  decalogue  has  been  supplemented,  if 
not  supplanted,  by  the  overman's  trilogy: 
(1)  "Business  is  business."  (2)  "Stand 
pat."  (3)  "I  want  what  I  want  when  I 
want  it."  "Business  is  business"  is  the  mascu- 
line equivalent  for  the  feminine  "because." 
"Stand  pat"  is  the  defiant  watchword  of  the 
politician  subservient  to  business.  "I  want 
what  I  want  when  I  want  it"  is  the  cry  of  the 
spoiled  child,  overspecialization  being  akin  to 
immaturity.  We  need  a  prophet  like  Carlyle 
to  proclaim  the  iniquity  and  futility  of  the 
philosophy,  "Every  man  for  himself  and  the 
devil  take  the  hindmost,"  and  to  announce  the 
discovery  of  a  "nobler  hell  than  that  of  not 
making  money." 

If  the  business  man  is  to  be  the  mentor  of 
public  morals,  he  must  learn  to  follow  the 
teachings  of  Isaiah,  Jesus,  Ruskin,  and 
other  social  prophets  that  there  can  be  no 
legitimate  mastery  without  service.  Tlie 
business  man  might  see  this  if  he  were  to 
take  his  nose  from  the  grindstone.  As  it  is, 
he  not  only  sees  sand,  but  he  condemns  the 

[14] 


The  Overspecialized  Business  Man 

onlooker,  whose  vision  is  clearer,  because  the 
latter  is  not  practical — that  is  to  say,  is  not 
engaged  in  the  same  blinding  business  proc- 
esses. It  is  as  though  a  man  rushing  head- 
long against  the  wall  of  an  observatory  should, 
by  the  concussion,  see  stars  and  claim  superior 
accomplishment  to  the  astronomer,  who  is 
merely  looking  at  the  real  heavens  with  the  aid 
of  a  scientific  instrument,  and  hence  not  suf- 
ficiently practical  or  strenuous. 

An  analysis  of  the  business  man,  as  we  ob- 
serve him  in  the  ablest  representatives,  may 
enable  us  to  see  how  many  of  his  powers  are 
wasted  by  overspecialization  to  the  detriment 
of  public  morals.  He  possesses  more  virility 
than  courage;  more  brains  than  culture;  more 
force  than  character;  all  successful  business 
men  possess  virility,  brains  and  force;  but  few 
exhibit  the  union  of  courage,  culture  and  char- 
acter. 

There  is  something  heroic  about  the  virility 
of  a  man  like  that  New  York  patriarch  who 
could  be  seen  trudging  regularly  to  his  of- 
fice after  he  had  passed  the  allotted  span  of 
[15] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

human  life,  to  engage  in  an  occupation  by 
many  considered  questionable,  the  fruits  of 
which  he  would  not  permit  himself  to  enjoy. 
There  was  no  courage,  however,  in  leaving  to 
an  aged  widow  the  fortune  he  had  not  allowed 
her  to  spend  during  the  years  of  its  accumu- 
lation. Her  wise  benefactions  cannot  absolve 
the  cowardice  of  the  miser. 

Examples  of  virility  abound,  but  unhappily 
instances  of  courage  are  rare.  During  the 
railway  strike  of  1894  a  well  known  professor 
of  economics  in  a  symposium  at  the  First  Pres- 
byterian Church  of  Chicago  declared  that  the 
railways  would  have  a  better  case  against  the 
sympathetic  strike  if  they  did  not  themselves 
maintain  a  blacklist.  One  of  the  pillars  of 
the  church,  a  prominent  railway  President, 
called  the  professor  a  liar,  for  this  imputation. 
The  trials  which  followed  the  strike  produced 
the  evidence  that  this  particular  railway  kept  a 
blacklist.  This  railway  executive  is  a  notable 
example  of  the  virile  business  man.  The  un- 
desirability  of  such  infonnation  having  cur- 
rency at  that  time  doubtless  caused  his  out- 

[16] 


The  Overspecialized  Business  Man 

burst,  but  his  cowardice  was  obvious.  One  of 
the  Chicago  packers  resented  the  criticism  of 
the  leading  Jewish  rabbi  that  the  packers  were 
evading  their  water  rents,  so  he  left  the  syna- 
gogue and  joined  a  Christian  church.  Cour- 
age would  have  cost  little  in  this  case,  except 
the  admission  of  the  superiority  of  rabbinical 
to  business  ethics. 

While  Washington  has  secured  a  great 
union  railway  station  and  New  York  is  wit- 
nessing the  building  of  the  greatest  railway 
terminals  in  the  world,  Chicago,  with  no  seri- 
ous topographical  difficulties,  is  dealing  with 
the  steam  transportation  problem  in  a  petty, 
piecemeal  fashion.  The  New  York  Central 
system  built  a  fine  new  station  in  the  wrong 
place,  in  entire  disregard  of  other  roads,  the 
city's  welfare,  or  even  its  own  future  conven- 
ience. The  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Rail- 
way is  building  a  new  station  in  a  new  place, 
making  a  desirable  but  utterly  inadequate  im- 
provement, viewed  in  the  perspective  of  fifty 
years.  The  Pennsylvania  Railway  spent  mil- 
lions on  its  Pittsburg  terminals,  including  an 

[17] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

elaborate  new  station,  which  proved  to  be  too 
small  the  day  it  was  opened,  although  it  owns 
and  uses  the  ground  on  which  an  adequate 
station  might  have  been  built.  These  in- 
stances are  typical. 

The  attitude  toward  physical  improvements 
is  similar  to  that  toward  investments.  Virility 
is  constantly  being  throttled  by  timidity. 
Great  industrial  enterprises  go  begging  for 
funds,  although  protected  by  valuable  plants, 
while  the  speculative  "securities"  find  a  ready 
sale.  The  preferred  stock  of  a  great  mail- 
order house  was  frowned  upon,  although 
backed  by  a  six  million  dollar  modern  factory, 
while  railways,  subject  to  legislative  interfer- 
ence, were  commended  by  financiers.  It  took 
ten  years  to  get  the  capital  to  build  the  New 
York  elevated  railways,  and,  after  they  had 
proved  to  be  a  gold  mine,  it  was  equally  hard 
to  convince  cowardly  capital  of  the  practicabil- 
ity of  the  subway. 

In  the  face  of  this  experience  the  report  of 
the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce  on  the 

[18] 


The  Overspecialized  Business  Man 

extension  of  subways  is  one  of  the  most  con- 
temptible pieces  of  contemporary  pusillanim- 
ity perpetrated  by  the  overman.  As  re- 
ported in  the  Boston  Transcript: 

"In  its  briefest  form,  the  verdict  reached  by  the  spe- 
cial committee  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  comes  down 
to  this:  The  city  has  no  borrowing  capacity  within  its 
present  debt  limit  to  enable  it  to  raise  money  to  build 
subways  and  the  chamber  has  declared  against  the  pend- 
ing constitutional  amendment  exempting  bonds  issued 
for  enterprises  which  have  proved  themselves  self-sus- 
taining—  [«ic'.'] — so  the  question  of  municipal  construc- 
tion of  further  subways  need  not  be  considered.  In  the 
matter  of  private  construction,  various  obstacles,  such 
as  the  present  limitation  of  operating  franchises  to 
twenty-five  years  with  a  twenty-year  renewal,  the  super- 
vision of  the  Public  Service  Commission,  the  increased 
cost  of  construction  and  operation  and  what  the  com- 
mittee terms  the  hostility  of  a  certain  part  of  the  public, 
combine  to  make  capital  timid  of  entering  the  traction 
field.  It  is  a  question,  according  to  the  committee,  what 
inducements  are  necessary.  The  committee  suggests 
private  construction  and  operation  under  a  scheme  of 
combined  profit  sharing  and  subsidy  in  which  the  city 
makes  good  deficits  below  certain  guarantees  of  return 
on  invested  capital  and  takes  the  surplus  over  and  above 
[19] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

an  agreed  income.  As  an  alternative,  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce  committee  suggests  an  increased  fare  on  ex- 
press trains.  It  would  also  create  a  commission  of 
three  engineers,  one  chosen  by  the  companies,  one  by 
the  city  and  the  third  by  these  two,  to  pass  upon  the 
reasonableness  of  all  orders  of  the  Public  Service  Com- 
mission before  promulgation.  With  these  safeguards 
the  committee  and  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  believe 
that  private  capital  might  be  induced  to  reenter  the 
traction  field.  .  .  .  *  It  cannot  safely  be  concluded 
that  future  subways  will  necessarily  prove  profitable.' 
.  .  .  To  begin  with  the  last  statement,  the  committee 
of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  seems  to  have  overlooked, 
wilfully  or  otherwise,  the  fact  that  in  the  last  year 
and  a  half  the  growth  of  earnings  on  the  present  sub- 
way has  so  far  outstripped  the  elevated's  earnings  that 
for  the  September  quarter  of  1908  the  subway's  net  was 
$1,182,605,  after  deducting  interest,  taxes,  and  amorti- 
zation, as  against  a  deficit  of  $209,312.47  for  the  ele- 
vated. .  .  .  The  record  shows  that  in  the  first  full 
year  of  operation — 1905 — 116,209,313  passengers  were 
carried.  The  following  year  the  traffic  rose  to  149,778,- 
370;  for  1907  it  was  182,559,990;  and  for  1908  it  was 
228,991,212.  .  .  .  Mr.  McAdoo  is  willing  to  go 
ahead  to  the  Grand  Central,  at  least,  under  all  the  re- 
strictions of  tlie  present  law,  on  a  twenty-five  year  fran- 
chise, with  a  twenty-year  renewal,  and  asks  no  subsidy, 
neither  that  he  may  vise  the  orders  of  the  Public  Service 

[20] 


The  Overspecialized  Business  Man 

Commission  before  they  become  effective.  Being  in  the 
business  of  selling  transportation  and  not  that  of  selling 
.watered  securities,  he  has  no  fear  of  regulation," 

The  only  advance  in  the  methods  of  taxa- 
tion in  Chicago  in  twenty  years  was  made 
primarily  by  a  woman,  a  little,  single  woman, 
with  the  backing  of  women,  the  elementary 
school  teachers.  It  is  universally  recognized 
that  Chicago's  chief  municipal  limitation  is 
lack  of  funds,  due  to  its  antiquated  taxing 
system,  but  the  business  world  has  had  noth- 
ing but  vituperation  for  these  women  who 
compelled  the  taxation  of  corporations,  illegal- 
ly neglected  by  the  public  officials.  It  was 
cowardly,  in  the  first  instance,  for  the  overman 
not  to  have  effected  the  reform  himself ;  in  the 
second,  not  to  have  applauded  its  accomplish- 
ment. A  lesson  might  have  been  learned  from 
the  Carlisle  Indian  football  player,  as  yet  un- 
sophisticated, who,  being  tackled  just  before 
the  goal  posts,  after  having  run  half  the  length 
of  the  field,  grasped  the  hand  of  the  full- 
back underneath  the  mound  of  Harvard  play- 
ers, and  said,  "Good  tackle!" 
[21] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

The  overspecialized  business  man  is  not  a 
good  sport. 

Secondly — The  business  man  possesses 
brains,  but  usually  not  culture.  In  his  igno- 
rance, he  often  disdains  culture,  confusing  it 
with  learning.  He  does  not  know  that  his 
habit  of  quick  thinking  indicates  his  ability  to 
do  clear  thinking  outside  of  his  daily  routine, 
if  he  were  not  so  sadly  overspecialized.  Even 
a  self-made  man  may  possess  that  culture  which 
is  described  by  Bosanquet  as  "the  habit  of  a 
mind  instinct  with  purpose,  cognizant  of  a 
tendency  and  connection  in  human  achieve- 
ment, able  and  industrious  in  discerning  the 
great  from  the  trivial." 

Perhaps  the  ablest  business  man  Chicago 
has  produced  was  its  great  merchant  prince. 
Measured  by  the  popular  contemporary  stand- 
ard, his  brains  weighed  a  hundred  million 
dollars  in  gold,  the  foundations  of  which  came 
from  legitimate  business.  After  building  up 
a  retail,  wholesale,  and  export  trade  which  has 
no  rival;  after  constructing  the  most  monu- 
mental wholesale  house  in  the  country,  with  the 

[22] 


^The  Overspecialized  Business  Man 

aid  of  America's  first  architect,  Richardson; 
after  developing  a  retail  store  unrivaled  in 
New  York  or  Philadelphia;  after  paying  more 
taxes  than  any  man  in  the  United  States,  he 
still  had  a  surplus,  which  was  put  into  public 
service  corporations,  from  which  finally  the 
bulk  of  his  fortune  was  secured.  Brains  have 
seldom  been  better  used  in  business,  but  when 
he  came  to  die  he  revealed  his  tragic  lack  of 
culture.  He  had  aided  education  by  gifts  to 
the  university,  and  the  establishment  of 
a  natural  history  museum,  through  which  he 
exercises  a  permanent  influence  on  the  culture 
of  others.  Nevertheless  the  bulk  of  his  for- 
tune is  entailed  and  so  bound  by  the  dead  hand 
as  inevitably  to  curse  those  who  receive  it. 

Instances  of  brains  without  culture  crowd 
upon  us.  Mr.  Roosevelt  said  that  at  the  an- 
thracite coal  conference,  John  Mitchell  was  the 
only  gentleman  in  the  room,  the  President, 
with  the  coal  operators,  having  lost  his  temper. 
One  of  Chicago's  most  public  spirited  clubs 
"entertained"  the  School  Board  by  banquet- 
ing them  and  inviting  a  distinguished  uni- 

[23] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

versity  president  and  some  local  talent  to 
abuse  them  with  personahties.  No  member 
of  the  club  would  have  dreamed  of  treating 
guests  in  the  same  way  in  his  own  home,  but 
culture,  not  conventionality,  is  needed  to  meet 
the  amenities  of  public  life. 

The  most  spectacular  and  amusing  evidence 
of  the  absence  of  culture  in  the  business  world 
is  probably  the  National  Civic  Federation's 
discovery  of  Mr.  Mallock.  For  more  than  a 
decade  the  Englishman's  facile  pen  has  been  a 
joy  to  the  academic  world,  which  has  regarded 
him  as  a  cross  between  a  philosophic  Pickwick 
and  an  economic  Don  Quixote.  That  sober 
Americans  should  import  him  to  annihilate 
Socialism  would  have  been  incredible  if  it  were 
not  known  that  the  business  world  is  "easy" 
for  the  adventurer  if  he  understands  the  over- 
man's colossal  vanity.  Churches,  philan- 
thropies and  Cassie  Chadwicks  are  subsidized 
by  a  recognition  of  this  fact.  The  superior 
common  sense  of  the  people  was  shown  in  New 
York's  reception  of  Dowie,  who  deluded  some 
of  the  people,  as  Mr.  Mallock  has  many  of 

[24] 


The  Overspecialized  Business  Man 

the  business  men.  The  most  trenchant  criti- 
cisms of  Mr.  Mallock  have  come  from  oppo- 
nents of  SociaHsm,  who  see  that  he  is  doing 
damage  to  the  cause  he  is  subsidized  to  sup- 
port. The  Civic  Federation  would  have  ac- 
comphshed  its  purpose  better  by  employing  a 
notorious  anarchist  to  advocate  socialism, 
which  would  have  aroused  the  wrath  of  the 
Socialists,  who  are  now  laughing  in  their 
sleeves. 

A  more  dangerous  consequence  of  brains 
unrestrained  by  sound  culture  is  being  mani- 
fested in  the  development  of  the  national  gov- 
ernment. The  Federal  Constitution  is  no 
longer  adapted  to  the  industrial  civilization  it 
attempts  to  govern.  Industry  employs  twen- 
tieth century  methods,  while  the  Constitution 
is  an  eighteenth  century  product.  The  over- 
man, who  is  trying  to  get  into  the  Senate  for 
business  or  social  purposes  should  join  in  the 
effort  to  make  Senate  and  House  representa- 
tive, preferably  by  their  union  in  one  official 
body.  Then  he  could  extend  the  Federal  juris- 
diction, he  could  insure   public  conservation 

[25] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

whether  municipal,  state  or  national,  he  could 
legalize  railway  combinations  and  pools,  unify 
divorce  and  marriage  laws,  secure  just  tax- 
ation, control  foods  and  liquors  in  the  interest 
of  public  health,  maintain  dignity  in  foreign 
relations,  give  the  States  home  rule,  and  pro- 
mote public  morality. 

Thirdly — The  business  man  possesses  force, 
but  frequently  not  character.  One  of  the 
most  forceful  men  in  the  public  eye  at  the  time 
of  his  unfortunate  death  was  Mr.  Harriman. 
He  was  doing  what  ought  long  ago  to  have 
been  done,  and  ought  by  this  time  to  be  legal — 
consolidating  the  great  trunk  railway  lines. 
Mr.  Harriman's  force  was  admirable,  but  he 
unblushingly  confessed  to  practices  which  dis- 
interested people  regard  as  flagrantly  dishon- 
est. Force  is  an  element  of  character,  and 
nice  discriminations  are  likely  to  be  overlooked 
in  the  presence  of  forceful  and  useful  accom- 
plishment, but  public  morality  may  be  thereby 
subverted. 

When  the  Chicago  stockyards  revelations 
were  confirmed  in  the  calm  report  of  the  Presi- 

[26] 


The  Overspedalized  Business  Man 

dent's  committee,  following  the  insinuations  of 
a  perfervid  novelist,  the  Chicago  business  men 
united  in  giving  a  clean  bill  of  health  to  the 
packers,  whose  improvements  have  since  testi- 
fied to  the  truth  of  the  criticisms.  This  cer- 
tificate of  character  was  offered  by  the 
business  world  to  preserve  the  "fair  name  of 
Chicago,"  forgetful  that  elementary  morals 
demanded  that  Chicago  repent  in  sackcloth 
and  ashes,  or  at  least  crepe  and  soot,  if  the 
name,  already  sullied,  were  to  be  redeemed. 

Why  should  the  moral  vision  be  limited  by 
viewing  society  through  the  wrong  end  of  the 
financial  field-glass? 

The  bankers,  "honorable  gentlemen  all," 
twice  unanimously,  in  annual  convention,  op- 
posed the  postal  savings  banks.  No  express 
official  dares  to  admit  the  inferiority  of  the 
United  States  parcel  post,  which  sends  a  pack- 
age to  Europe  more  cheaply  than  from  an 
American  city  to  its  suburb.  Even  the  hotel 
keepers'  association  disapproves  of  the  parcel 
post,  because  it  w^ould  favor  the  mail-order 
houses,  which  would  reduce  the  number  of 
[27] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

commercial  travellers,  which  would  injure  the 
hotel  business!  All  of  these  gentlemen  view 
with  abhorrence  the  "class-conscious"  prop- 
aganda of  the  orthodox  Socialists! 

The  merchants  of  Market  Street,  Phila- 
delphia, in  an  effort  to  solve  the  local  trans- 
portation problem  which  afflicts  that  city  with 
most  others,  made  a  proposition  to  the  com- 
pany and  the  city  with  a  view  to  harmony.  It 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  Philadelphia  has 
been  bound,  hand  and  foot,  to  a  corpora- 
tion, spoiled  by  years  of  tolerance  in  an  abject 
community.  The  responsible  merchants  pro- 
posed that  all  the  previous  misdeeds  of  the 
corporation  be  overlooked,  its  watered  stock 
guaranteed  by  the  city,  and  thenceforth  a  part- 
nership be  established,  the  city  to  receive  half 
of  all  revenues  above  six  per  cent.  Only  one 
merchant  in  Philadelphia  had  ever  shown  any 
sympathy  for  the  public  as  against  the  corpo- 
ration, yet  many  thoughtful  Philadelphians 
seemed  ready  to  accept  the  more  than  dubious 
proposal  on  the  strength  of  the  signatures  ap- 
pended to  it.     Furthermore,  the  papers,  even 

[28] 


The  Overspecialized  'Business  Man 

the  yellowest,  refused  to  print  articles  and  in- 
terviews favorable  to  the  public.  Is  it  sur-^ 
prising  that  such  a  company  in  such  a  city 
should  not  feel  bound  by  its  obligations 
to  either  the  public  or  its  employees?  Yet, 
when  it  illegally  abandons  the  system  of  sell- 
ing six  tickets  for  twenty-five  cents,  or  plunges 
the  city  into  anarchy  with  street  railway 
strikes,  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  low 
standard  of  public  morality  in  Philadelphia  is 
at  least  coincident  with  what  the  inhabitants  of 
the  average  American  city  would  regard  as  the 
doubtful  character  of  its  merchants. 

In  seeming  contrast  with  this  experience  is 
that  of  Chicago,  whose  street  railway  fran- 
chises have  been  heralded  throughout  the  land 
as  exceptionally  favorable  to  the  city.  Here, 
too,  one  must  be  reminded,  is  a  background  of 
civic  history.  Chicago's  municipal  ownership 
agitation  alone  rendered  impossible  a  repeti- 
tion of  Philadelphia's  experience.  The  actual 
details  of  the  franchises  are  unimportant,  ex- 
cept that  they  are  so  many  that  it  has  been 
said  that  only  the  corporation  lawyers  and  the 
[29] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

city's  special  traction  counsel  can  interpret 
them.  Yet,  in  spite  of  repeated  and  unmis- 
takable demands  from  the  people  for  munici- 
pal ownership,  these  franchises,  which  were  of- 
fered as  a  more  practicable  solution,  were 
rushed  through  the  City  Council  in  the  middle 
of  the  night.  Then  the  business  interests  de- 
manded that  they  be  passed  finally,  without  the 
referendum,  which  had  been  promised  the 
people,  claiming  that  the  public  was  tired  of 
being  consulted.  Greatly  to  their  surprise  a 
huge  petition  for  submission  to  a  popular  vote 
was  secured  in  an  incredibly  short  time.  That 
the  people  voted  for  the  franchises,  after  in- 
sisting on  the  referendum,  only  shows  how 
shortsighted  the  bullying  business  man  can  be. 
This  distrustful  and  overbearing  attitude 
was  also  evidenced  in  Boston,  where  a  business 
man's  commission  presented  to  the  legislature 
a  bill  for  a  new  charter,  framed  primarily  to 
prevent  the  election  of  a  previous  mayor,  and 
based  halfheartedly  on  the  best  American  ex- 
perience. All  but  the  single  labor  member 
opposed  a  referendum,  but  even  the  Chamber 

[30] 


The  Overspecialized  Business  Man 

of  Commerce,  under  great  pressure  of  wise 
leaders,  demanded  submission  to  a  popular 
vote.  The  legislature,  moved  by  the  business 
man's  commission  on  one  side  and  office-hold- 
ing politicians  on  the  other,  finally  presented 
to  the  people  a  choice  of  two  charters.  The 
people  chose  the  lesser  evil,  as  might  have  been 
expected,  but  the  electorate  which  had  been 
treated  with  such  condescension  refused  to  elect 
the  business  man's  candidate  for  mayor,  and 
the  overman  is  still  innocently  wondering  why 
his  experience  met  with  ingratitude.  A  com- 
bination of  culture  and  character  would  have 
devised  a  wiser  charter,  would  not  have  squan- 
dered its  energies  on  ephemeral  political  sit- 
uations, and  would  have  been  honorable  enough 
to  invite  and  enjoy  the  confidence  of  the  peo- 
ple. 

Philadelphia's  dishonorable  supremacy  is 
threatened  only  by  San  Francisco,  where  the 
graft  prosecution,  which  promised  for  a  time 
to  reach  the  culprits  "higher  up,"  has  been 
suppressed.  As  phrased  by  a  typical  editor 
there,  they  feared  that  the  graft  proceedings 
[31] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

would  become  an  "institution."  So  an  alli- 
ance was  made  between  respectable  business 
and  a  corrupt  labor  party  to  suppress  morality 
for  the  furtherance  of  prosperity,  a  process 
not  confused  by  the  surrender  of  a  prizefight 
to  get  an  exposition.  It  certainly  takes  a  faith 
that  is  "childlike  and  bland"  to  continue  to 
take  interest  in  the  city  of  the  Golden  Gate, 
the  capital  of  the  Sunset  Seal 

It  is  frequently  said  that  business  men 
would  enter  politics  and  give  us  the  benefit  of 
their  executive  ability  and  unimpeachable  char- 
acters, but  a  political  campaign  may  sully  their 
reputations  and  the  time  consumed  in  pubhc 
affairs  interfere  with  their  business.  Then, 
too,  they  might  not  be  elected!  The  business 
district  of  Chicago  is  represented  in  the  City 
Council  by  Aldermen  Kenna  and  Coughlin, 
popularly  known  as  "Hinky  Dink"  and 
"Bathhouse  John."  These  statesmen,  whose 
position  seems  almost  self-perpetuating,  cor- 
respond to  the  liveried  representatives  of  the 
London  guilds,  those  mediaeval  survivals 
which    arouse    such    mirth    in   the    American 

[32] 


The  Overspecialized  Business  Man 

abroad.  They  will  hold  office,  not  merely  as 
long  as  the  reformers  say  they  levy  tribute  on 
gamblers,  prostitutes,  and  lodging-house  keep- 
ers, but  while  they  are  unopposed  by  the  busi- 
ness interests.  In  truth,  the  character  of  the 
community  is  represented  in  its  government 
and  written  in  its  streets,  that  he  who  reads 
may  run. 

Directly  or  indirectly,  the  brains  of  the  com- 
munity will  govern.  If  the  business  interests 
of  the  city  would  indorse  municipal  ownership, 
when  such  sentiment  exists,  its  success  would 
be  assured,  as  it  is  generally  abroad.  If  the 
business  interests  demanded  fair  franchises, 
such,  and  such  alone,  would  be  granted.  The 
overman  must  demonstrate  that  he  believes,  at 
least,  in  the  municipal  ownership  of  the  city 
government,  and  its  consequent  freedom  from 
boss  and  business  rule.  It  is  legitimate  for 
the  pubUc  to  measure  the  character  of  the  over- 
man by  his  disinterested  devotion  to  city  and 
nation.  StiU,  the  public  must  learn  to  be  tol- 
erant of  the  overspecialized  business  man  for 
the  misdirection  of  his  virility,  brains,  and 
[33] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

force,  due  to  the  exacting  system  of  which  he 
is  not  the  author.  The  public  will  be  tolerant 
as  he  gains  the  courage,  culture,  and  character 
needed  to  fit  him  for  public  service.  "He  that 
is  greatest  among  you  shall  be  your  servant." 


[34] 


THE  OVERESTIMATED 
ANGLO-SAXON 


CHAPTER  Hi 

THE  OVERESTIMATED  ANGLO-SAXON 

THE  Anglo-Saxon  has  been  predestined 
from  the  dawn  of  history  to  play  the 
leading  part  in  industrial  development, 
as  soon  as  the  world-market  embraced  the  en- 
tire globe.  His  pre-eminence  in  economic  and 
social  evolution  is  due  primarily  to  his  position 
of  natural  advantage  among  modern  com- 
mercial nations.  He  is,  at  once,  the  child  of 
fortune  and  the  maker  of  destiny. 

The  expression,  "from  the  dawn  of  his- 
tory," has  been  used  with  intent.  Primeval 
Britain  was  part  of  a  great  continent  extend- 
ing to  Greenland  and  Iceland.  Even  in  the 
(geologically  speaking)  comparatively  recent 
Pleistocene  age  the  British  Isles  were  a  part 
of  the  continent  of  Europe,  the  English  rivers 
joined  the  Rhine,  the  Elbe,  and  others,  to  make 

[37] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

a  mighty  stream  flowing  into  the  North  Atlan- 
tic Ocean/  The  separation  of  the  British  Isles 
from  the  mainland  by  "the  narrow  streak  of 
silver"  known  as  the  Straits  of  Dover,  has  al- 
tered the  history  of  the  world  and  the  destiny 
of  nations.  When  the  elements  declared 
peace  at  the  close  of  the  Pleistocene  age  Eng- 
land came  into  the  heritage  of  the  "favored 
nation  clause,"  but  the  claim  could  not  be  made 
good  until  the  expansion  of  the  world  in  the 
fifteenth  century. 

To  appreciate  the  altered  relations  of  Eng- 
land to  civilization  we  must  project  ourselves 
into  the  Mediterranean  w^orld  of  the  Ptolemaic 
geography,  which  represented  the  known 
world  down  to  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. Mediaeval  civilization  was  almost  wholly 
confined  to  the  European  area  accessible  to  the 
Mediterranean  Sea.  The  world  powers  were 
all  located  there.  Scandinavia  was  unknown; 
Germany,  the  Netherlands,  and  Britain,  were 
not  to  be  compared  with  Italy,  France,  and 
the  Iberian  peninsula.     The  expropriation  of 

1  Dawkins,  Early  Man  in  Britain,  p.  151. 

[38] 


The  Overestimated  Anglo-Saxon 

Europe  having  reached  its  hmit  under  the 
known  industrial  methods  the  Far  East  was 
the  goal  of  wealth  seekers.  The  Mediter- 
ranean nations  possessed  the  advantage  of  lo- 
cation and  profited  by  it.  The  isolated  posi- 
tion of  the  British  Isles,  actually  at  the  end  of 
the  world,  is  admirably  shown  in  Ptolemy's 
map  of  the  world ;  even  the  Indian  Ocean  is  of 
vastly  greater  importance  than  the  Atlantic. 
Bearing  in  mind  the  ignorance  of  the  virtues 
of  the  magnetic  needle  and  the  difficulties  at- 
tendant on  venturing  into  the  open  and  un- 
known sea,  we  are  not  surprised  that  the  con- 
tour of  the  British  Isles  was  not  better  known. 
It  is  but  another  evidence  of  their  insig- 
nificance. 

The  Mediterranean  nations  were  doomed, 
however,  to  forfeit  their  natural  advantages. 
In  1498  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  route  to  In- 
dia was  discovered.  In  1515  the  Turks  fell  on 
Egypt  and  blocked  the  only  remaining  land 
route  to  the  east.  The  latter  event  was  almost 
as  important  as  the  former,  since  it  stimulated 
the  development  of  the  sea  route  to  India. 

[39] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

The  position  of  natural  advantage  in  relation 
to  the  new  route  was  enjoyed  by  Spain  and 
Portugal.  The  energies  of  the  former  were, 
however,  being  directed  elsewhere.  For  a 
long  time  the  Portuguese,  under  the  benedic- 
tion of  the  pope,  monopolized  the  trade  with 
India.  There  was  a  force  at  work,  however, 
more  powerful  than  the  benediction  of  a  pope. 
The  plucky  Hollanders,  progressive,  indepen- 
dent, liberal,  improved  the  art  of  navigation, 
traded  freely  with  all  nations,  and  finally  sup- 
planted the  Portuguese  in  the  East.  The  slight 
advantages  of  position  and  possession  enjoyed 
by  Portugal  are  overcome  by  the  Netherlands 
through  the  superiority  of  the  latter  nation. 
Supremacy,  as  we  shall  see  in  a  more  impor- 
tant case,  inevitably  passes  into  the  hands  of  the 
Northern  nations,  but  character  is  not  always 
to  triumph  over  geography. 

Meanwhile  the  destiny  of  nations  was  not 
being  settled  in  the  far  East  but  in  the  un- 
known West.  The  early  precedence  of  Spain 
in  the  discovery  and  settlement  of  the  New 
World  was  not  due  merely  to  her  advantage 

[40] 


The  Overestimated  Anglo-Saxon 

of  position  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the 
Atlantic,  nor  to  the  accident  of  Columbus' 
subsidy,  but  to  the  favoring  ocean  currents  and 
prevailing  winds.  The  prevailing  winds  are 
from  the  northeast,  and  the  ocean  currents 
sweep  away  from  the  Eastern  Hemisphere,  off 
the  Iberian  peninsula,  toward  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  and  South  America.  Once  having 
reached  the  West  Indies,  Florida,  Mexico, 
South  America,  colonists  were  favored  by  a 
mild  climate,  which  enabled  them  to  sustain 
life  easily,  and  to  furnish  temporarily  an 
enormous  advantage  to  the  mother  country. 
It  was  not  possible,  however,  for  this  advan- 
tage to  endure,  for  these  colonists,  enervated 
by  a  too  favorable  climate,  succumbed  to  the 
more  vigorous  immigrants  peopling  the  less 
hospitable  shores,  after  the  analogy  of  the  vic- 
torious northern  nations  of  the  old  country. 

France,  Holland  and  England,  ignoring 
currents  and,  winds,  took  advantage  of  the 
shortness  of  the  northern  route,  and  settled 
largely  in  accordance  with  isothermal  lines. 
The  immediate  disadvantage  but  ultimate 
[41] 


"Democracy  and  the  Overman 

benefit  to  the  latter  nations  lay  in  establishing 
colonies  where  effort  was  needed  to  maintain 
an  existence,  but  at  the  same  time  where  effort 
was  rewarded  by  more  than  an  existence,  a 
comfortable  livelihood  in  an  invigorating  cli- 
mate. 

In  general  contour  and  coast  line  North 
America  resembles  Europe.  Great  navigable 
rivers  flow  to  the  sea,  giving  today  ports  of 
entry  a  thousand  miles  from  the  ocean.  The 
land  which  England  was  to  colonize  was  as 
much  superior  to  the  lands  selected  (involun- 
tarily) by  the  Spanish  as  England  is  to  Spain.* 
The  climatic  conditions  of  North  America  re- 
sembled those  of  these  colonizing  nations. 
The  same  plants  and  cereals  grew  there.  The 
grains  which  had  made  energetic  aborigines 
were  supplemented  by  domestic  animals,  whose 
absence  had  kept  the  natives  in  the  nomad 
state.  With  these  advantages  the  cultivation 
of  the  relatively  barren  soil  along  the  North 

1  Leroy-Beaulieu,   De   la  colonization   chez  les  peuples  mod- 
ernes  (Paris,  1891). 

[42] 


The  Overestimated  Anglo-Saxon 

Atlantic  coast  was  not  impossible,  though  suf- 
ficiently difficult  to  prove  a  selective  agency 
in  determining  the  character  of  the  colonists.^ 
Their  power  to  labor  was  their  chief  source  of 
strength.  The  climatic  conditions  produced 
only  such  diseases  of  men  and  cattle  as  were 
already  known  to  the  settlers,  so  that  remedies 
were  at  hand,  which  was  not  true  in  the  case  of 
the  Spanish  settlers.  These  were,  however,  all 
deferred  advantages.  The  palm  at  first 
seemed  to  belong  to  Spain,  as  is  well  shown  by 
maps  of  the  period.  A  map  drawn  by  Johan- 
nes Schoener  in  1520  locates  America  all  below 
the  equator,  except  the  islands,  the  Antilles  and 
others,  opposite  Spain,  and  an  island  under  the 
Arctic  circle  on  a  parallel  with  Iceland.^  A 
map  of  the  year  1540  represents  South 
America  in  much  its  present  known  form,  but 
North  America  is  a  long  peninsula,  of  which 
Yucatan  and  Mexico,  Cuba  and  Florida  are 
substantially  correct,   but  the  northern  part 

1  Shaler,  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i,  chaps,  i,  ii. 
sLelewel,  Geographie  du  Moyen  Age  (Brussels,  1850). 

[43] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

tapers  off  northeasterly  (having  a  width  from 
east  to  west  for  the  most  part  of  only  a  few 
hundred  miles) ,  not  far  from  Iceland. 

While  these  advantages  of  precedence  were 
being  overcome  by  natural  causes  in  the  New 
World  similar  forces  were  at  work  in  the  Old. 
The  only  nations  to  whom  the  conquest  of  the 
New  World  was  possible  were  gradually  elim- 
inated by  the  character  of  the  people  or  the 
location  of  the  land  until  the  contest  was  nar- 
rowed to  two.  Location  was  favorable  to 
Spain  and  Portugal  as  well  as  to  Holland  and 
England.  The  two  former  were  handicapped 
by  the  character  of  their  colonies  and  their  peo- 
ples. The  superstitious,  ill-governed  Span- 
ish and  Portuguese  were  no  worthy  rivals  for 
the  individualistic,  enterprising  communities  of 
the  Netherlands  and  England,  who  were  in 
some  measure  capable  of  self-government  and 
who  had  been  subjected  to  the  clarifying  in- 
fluence of  the  Renaissance.  The  conflict  was 
reduced  to  the  Netherlands  and  England. 
England  won  by  her  geographical  advantages. 
Freedom  from  war,  guaranteed  by  the  Chan- 
[44] 


The  Overestimated  Anglo-Saocon 

nel,  and  easy  access  to  the  globe  discounted 
the  superiority  of  the  Dutch  in  government 
and  personal  character/  These  latter  qualities 
were  proof  against  Holland's  militant  con- 
queror, Spain,  but  had  to  yield  the  supremacy 
to  commercially  favored  Britain.  The  Anglo- 
Saxon  myth  was  germinating. 

England's  natural  advantages  were  two: 
geographic  and  geological.  As  was  first 
pointed  out  by  Sir  John  Herschel,  "If  we 
describe  a  great  circle  round  London,  which 
at  the  present  time  is,  in  fact,  the  great  focus 
of  attraction  for  the  commerce  of  the  whole 
world,  almost  all  the  continental  surface^  sur- 
rounding the  basin  of  the  Atlantic,  rendering 
it  almost  an  inland  sea,  will  fall  within  this 
hemisphere."^  Within  this  great  inland  sea, 
London  enjoys  a  position  more  favorable  than 


1 D.  Campbell,  The  Puritan  in  Holland,  England,  and 
America,  vol.  i. 

2  Sixteen-seventeenths  of  the  land  surface  of  the  globe,  the 
land  in  this  hemisphere  being  47  million  square  miles  as 
against  five  million  in  the  other,  one-half  the  entire  hemis- 
phere in  the  one  case,  one-twentieth  in  the  other. 

sReclus,  The  Earth   (London,  1886),  p.  36. 

[45] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

that  occupied  by  Venice  when  she  commanded 
the  commerce  of  the  Mediterranean.  Not 
only  does  the  bulk  of  the  land  of  the  world  sur- 
round the  Atlantic  Ocean,  with  the  British 
Isles  in  the  center,  but  the  greatest  mountain 
ranges  of  the  world  in  Asia,  Africa,  North 
and  South  America  shut  these  continents  off  to 
some  extent  from  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  help 
to  complete  the  confined  nature  of  the  Atlantic 
hemisphere.  As  a  result  of  these  mountainous 
barriers,  most  of  the  great  navigable  rivers  of 
the  two  hemispheres  flow  directly  or  indirectly 
into  the  Atlantic,  bringing  London  and  the 
British  Isles  not  merely  into  contact  with  the 
seaports  of  the  various  countries,  but  also  with 
the  inland  towns  in  the  regions  drained  by 
these  rivers.  The  Atlantic  Ocean  became  the 
great  highway  of  the  world  and  all  routes  led 
to  London.  The  Anglo-Saxon  was  revealed. 
Hardly  less  important  than  geographical 
location  in  the  commercial  development  of 
Britain  are  topography  and  geology.  The 
configuration  of  the  English  coast  line  is  one 
of  the  determining  factors  in  her  commercial 

[46] 


The  Overestimated  Anglo-Saxon 

ascendancy.  A  straight  line  drawn  along  the 
east  coast  measures  about  350  miles,  along  the 
west  coast  about  the  same,  along  the  south  320, 
making  a  total  of  1000  miles;  "but  so  deeply 
is  the  coast  indented  that  the  total  length  of 
coast  hne  is  about  2400  miles — that  is,  one 
mile  of  coast  to  twenty-two  square  miles  of 
surface.  This  great  proportion  of  coast  line 
is  still  more  apparent  when  we  compare  Eng- 
land with  the  two  great  commercial  nations  of 
the  continent — France,  which  has  one  mile  of 
coast  to  seventy-nine  square  miles  of  surface, 
and  Germany,  which  has  a  very  much  smaller 
proportion."^  The  number  of  excellent  har- 
bors is  scarcely  less  remarkable  than  the  inden- 
tations in  the  coast. 

Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the  relief 
of  the  land.  It  slopes  gently  toward  the 
southeast,  making  many  of  the  rivers  navi- 
gable for  a  relatively  great  distance.  At  the 
same  time  the  location  of  the  mountains  has 
an  important  effect  in  making  the  climate 
equable  by  controlling  the  moisture  and  winds. 

iTAe  World  (Longmans),  p.  100. 

[47] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

England,  of  course,  shares  with  western 
Europe  the  advantage  of  the  influence  of  the 
Gulf  Stream  and  warm  air  currents,  the  con- 
trast with  countries  in  the  same  latitude, 
e.g.,  Labrador,  on  the  west  shore  of  the 
Atlantic,  being  most  marked.  Nature  has 
again  been  very  generous  in  shaping  the 
surface  of  the  land.  "England  is  distin- 
guished among  all  the  countries  of  Europe  for 
the  great  variety  of  geological  formations.  It 
is  the  very  paradise  of  the  geologist,  for  it  may 
be  said  to  be  in  itself  an  epitome  of  the  geology 
of  almost  the  whole  of  Europe,  and  of  much 
of  Asia  and  America.  .  .  .  Whatever 
may  be  the  mineral  riches  of  America  or  Aus- 
tralia, the  British  Isles  remain  the  most  pro- 
ductive mining  country  in  the  world."  ^  The 
mineral  wealth  is  not  onl}^  great,  but  a  large 
variety  of  rocks  lie  quite  near  the  surface,  so 
that  it  has  been  literally  necessary  only  to 
scratch  the  ground  to  produce  wealth. 

This  England,  blest  above  all  her  sisters. 


1  Reclus,  The  British  Isles  (ed,  by  Ravenstein),  pp.  7,  8. 

[48] 


Tlie  Overestimated  Anglo-Saxon 

slowly  and  painfully  subdued  Nature,  who 
was  destined  to  be  her  slave.  "It  remained 
even  at  the  close  of  Roman  rule  an  'isle  of 
blowing  woodland,'  a  wild  and  half  reclaimed 
country,  the  bulk  of  whose  surface  was  occu- 
pied by  forest  and  waste.  The  rich  and  lower 
soil  of  the  river  valleys,  indeed,  which  is  now 
the  favorite  home  of  agriculture,  had  in  the 
earliest  times  been  densely  covered  with  pri- 
meval scrub."  ^  The  climate  was  much  more 
disagreeable  than  now."  The  impassable 
forests  of  Surrey,  Kent,  and  Sussex,  the 
marshes  of  Lincoln,  Cambridge,  and  Norfolk 
have  become  gardens.  The  unseen  veins  of 
coal  in  Lancashire,  Durham,  and  South  Wales 
have  made  possible  the  British  Empire.  But 
until  the  expansion  of  the  world  these  treas- 
ures were  unappreciated. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  was  pre-eminently  insular. 
His  first  effort  was  naturally  directed  to  the 
development  of  the  superficial  advantages  of 


1  Green,   The  Making  of  England,  §  8.     See,   also  map. 

2  Gibbins,  Industry  in  England   (London,   1896),  p.   18,  and 
map,  p.  65. 

[49] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

his  country,  with  such  happy  results  that  until 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  England 
was  dominantly  pastoral  and  agricultural. 
The  exports  of  minerals  and  manufactures 
previous  to  the  modern  commercial  era,  while 
not  to  be  ignored,  were  distinctly  insignificant 
as  compared  with  the  importance  of  agricul- 
ture, and  another  enterprise  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  soil,  wool  raising.  "To  the 
Ghent  and  Bruges  of  the  Middle  Ages,  Eng- 
land stood  in  the  same  relation  as  the  Austra- 
lian colonies  hold  to  the  Leeds  and  Bradford 
of  our  own  day.  The  sheep  which  grazed  over 
the  wide,  uninclosed  pasture  lands  of  the  island 
formed  a  great  part  of  the  wealth  of  England, 
and  that  wealth  depended  entirely  on  the  flour- 
ishing trade  with  the  Flemish  towns  in  which 
English  wool  was  converted  into  cloth."  ^ 

From  prehistoric  times  England  had  been  in 
communication  with  continental  peoples,  but 
her  position  was  one  of  passivity.  Commerce 
was  developed  at  the  hands  of  Venetians  or 

1  Gardiner  and  MuUinger,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Eng- 
litk  History   (London,  1894),  p.  86. 

[50] 


The  Overestimated  Anglo-Saxon 

the  Hansa  towns,  or  the  Spanish  or  Portu- 
guese, or  the  Dutch.  The  development  even 
of  domestic  manufactures  was  due  to  the  im- 
migration of  skilled  artisans  into  England,  as 
a  result  of  religious  persecutions.  The  Anglo- 
Saxon  was  as  rustic  as  he  was  insular.  The 
"nation  of  tradesmen"  was  innocent  of  the  ele- 
ments of  trading.  Under  Edward  VI,  in  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  "it  was  en- 
acted that  whoever  should  buy  any  corn  or 
grain  with  intent  to  sell  it  again  should  for  the 
first  fault  suffer  two  months'  imprisonment  and 
forfeit  the  value  of  the  corn;  for  the  second, 
six  months'  imprisonment  and  forfeit  double 
the  value  of  the  corn;  for  the  third,  be  set  in 
the  pillory,  suffer  imprisonment  during  the 
king's  pleasure,  and  forfeit  all  his  goods  and 
chattels."  ^  Insular  in  commerce,  the  people 
were  also  insular  in  mind  and  manners.  "She 
had  originated  nothing  of  her  own.  Satirists 
held  that  Englishmen  fetched  their  dress  and 
external   accomplishments   from   foreign   na- 


1  Adam  Smith,  Wealth  of  Nations  (Globe  edition),  p.  412. 

[61] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

tions.  'I  think,'  says  Portia  in  the  Merchant 
of  Venice  of  her  EngHsh  lover,  'he  bought  his 
doublet  in  Italy,  his  round  hose  in  France,  his 
bonnet  in  Germany,  and  his  behavior  every- 
where.' "  ^ 

Observe  the  transformations  wrought  by 
Columbus  and  his  fellow  adventurers!  The 
immediate,  tangible  result  of  the  era  of  dis- 
coveries was  the  creation  of  a  world-market. 
The  control  of  this  market  finally  rested  in  the 
hands  of  the  Anglo-Saxon.  Spanish  arma- 
das, navigation  acts,  piratical  expeditions  are 
mere  incidents, — often,  it  is  true,  very  discred- 
itable incidents, — but  still  subordinate  to  the 
great  dominant  features  of  natural  advantage. 
The  first  great  benefit  to  England  of  this  posi- 
tion of  advantage  was  that  she  gained  com- 
mand of  the  carrying  trade  of  the  world's  com- 
merce. It  was  a  great  achievement  of  a  hith- 
erto uncommercial  nation  to  become  "mistress 
of  the  seas,"  but  she  was  to  enjoy  an  even 
higher  position  and  to  give  a  greater  interpre- 


1  Gardiner  and  JMuUinger,  \>.  \2\. 

[52] 


The  Overestimated  Anglo-Saxon 

tation  to  her  maritime  dominance.  Added  to 
her  favored  position  she  had  the  internal,  but 
undeveloped,  advantages  which  enabled  her  to 
supplant  not  merely  the  ships  of  other  nations, 
but  their  cargoes.  Africans  or  Asiatics  could 
not  have  resisted  such  economic  pressure,  as 
the  rise  of  Japan  has  more  recently  demon- 
strated. 4 

England  has  developed  this  world-market, 
often  at  the  expense  of  primitive  nations,  but 
on  the  whole  to  the  advantage  of  her  present 
rivals.  The  methods  which  she  adopted  in  the 
eighteenth  century  to  supply  this  market  were 
those  used  since  then  by  all  industrial  nations — 
cheapened  production  and  distribution.  The 
new  continents  were  an  outlet  for  the  popula- 
tion of  the  European  states.  The  New  World 
furnished  food  in  superabundance  for  a  grow- 
ing population,  but  they  had  to  look  to  the  Old 
World  for  clothes  and  many  other  simple  nec- 
essaries. To  clothe  these  colonists  English- 
men wore  rags.  "Cheap  and  expeditious" 
were  the  methods  adopted.  The  demand  of 
the  world  was  pressing.     England  occupied 

[53] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

the  favored  position.  For  half  a  century  she 
gave  herself  to  the  task  of  clothing  the  New 
World.  What  wonder  then  that  multitudes 
in  England  were  forgotten  and  went  un- 
clothed. 

The  rapidity  with  which  mechanical  improve- 
ments were  introduced,  the  transformation  ef- 
fected in  methods  of  production  by  the  intro- 
duction of  steam,  the  development  of  a  mag- 
nificent system  of  roads,  the  building  of  canals, 
and  finally  the  construction  of  railways,  altered 
the  face  of  England.  In  1688  the  agricultur- 
ists probably  out-numbered  those  engaged  in 
trade  and  commerce  four  to  one.  Between 
1811  and  1831  the  increase  in  agricultural 
families  was  two  and  one  half  percent.,  in  man- 
ufacturing and  trading  families  thirty  one  and 
one-half  per  cent.  The  independent  yeomanry, 
who  were  supposed  to  have  numbered  180,000 
at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
had  all  but  disappeared  at  its  close.  The  race 
altered  with  the  institutions.  It  is  to  be  ob- 
served that  the  first  industrial  expansion  took 
place  in  an  entirely  new  industry,  the  cotton 

[54] 


TJie  Overestimated  Anglo-Saxon 

manufacture,  which  was  exempt  from  the  re- 
strictive legislation  and  hampering  traditions 
which  applied  to  the  existing  industries.  Once 
more  geography  and  geology  play  their  parts ; 
the  fine  port  of  Liverpool  gave  access  to  the 
coal  region  of  Lancashire,  so  that  American 
cotton  could  readily  reach  the  first  great  mod- 
ern industrial  center. 

The  results  of  these  revolutionary  changes 
were  a  shifting  of  the  population  from  the 
south  to  the  north  of  England;  from  the 
country  to  the  rapidly  growing  cities;  and  the 
introduction  of  highly  specialized  division  of 
labor  with  its  consequences  of  great  factories, 
employment  of  women  and  children,  long 
hours,  low  wages,  ignorant  foremen,  careless 
and  conscienceless  proprietors.  Great  and 
pressing  problems  began  to  accumulate;  over- 
crowding in  cities,  unemployment,  pauperism, 
unsanitary  conditions,  illiteracy,  intemperance 
and  a  host  of  others.  These  too  were  the  legacy 
of  nature.  No  man  was  responsible  for  their 
creation,  whoever  might  have  been  charged 
with  their  continuance.     The  industrial  rev- 

[55] 


Deinocracy  and  the  Overman 

olution  had  come  upon  a  nation  unprepared 
for  its  consequences,  because  the  accident  of 
position  thrust  an  inconspicuous  people  into 
the  leadership  of  a  world-wide  commerce  and 
the  government  of  the  world's  largest  and 
greatest  empire.  How  the  nation  has  grap- 
pled with  these  problems  is  beginning  to  be 
appreciated.  Their  successful  and  unsuccess- 
ful solutions  will  prove  invaluable  to  us 
and  other  nations  where  the  same  problems 
are  developing,  if  we  frankty  recognize 
that  England  was  inevitably  the  forerunner 
in  these  industrial  and  social  changes  and  con- 
sequently must  be  possessed  of  the  valuable 
knowledge  which  comes  only  from  experience. 
The  one  power  which  can  take  away  from 
England  her  precedence  is  the  annihilation  of 
distance.  The  encroachments  of  the  less 
favored  nations  may  be  explained  by  the  fact 
that  location  has  ceased  to  have  the  prime  sig- 
nificance which  it  possessed  in  previous  cen- 
turies. The  three  great  inventions,  whereby 
the  genius  of  man  has  been  able  to  bring  the 
extremes  of  this  globe  nearer  together  than 

[50] 


The  Overestimated  Anglo-Saxon 

were  the  distant  parts  of  mediaeval  civilization, 
were  successively  appropriated  by  England  to 
strengthen  her  position  of  natural  advantage. 
The  magnetic  needle,  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
gave  her  ships  command  of  the  world's  com- 
merce. Steam,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  cou- 
pled with  her  geological,  and  geographical 
superiority,  gave  her  the  first  position  in  in- 
dustry. Electricity,  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
has  for  a  time  enabled  her  to  maintain  the  soli- 
darity of  the  British  Empire,  the  evidences  of 
which  cause  every  foreign  visitor  to  the  city 
of  London  to  marvel.  But  electricity,  by  its 
annihilation  of  distance,  has  been  friendly  to 
England's  competitors;  first  the  New  World 
and  then  the  Orient  advanced  by  this  latest  in- 
vention into  the  field  of  rivalry.  The  chief 
contemporary  evidence  of  Britain's  having 
made  the  best  use  of  all  the  auxiliaries  of  com- 
merce lies  in  the  fact  that  she  alone  has  been 
able  to  maintain  a  system  of  free  trade.  The 
growing  protectionist  sentiment  is  a  testimony 
to  the  loss  of  some  of  the  advantages  of  her 
position. 

[57] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

Britain  is  the  upstart  among  nations;  her 
opportunity  was  long  delayed,  but  when  it  was 
thrust  upon  her  she  seized  it.  Deny  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  none  of  the  laurels  of  success;  the  crown 
of  victory  still  belongs  to  the  god  of  battles 
who  located  the  strategic  sites  occupied  by  the 
favored  army  of  industrial  invaders  of  the 
world-market.  "Honor  to  whom  honor  is 
due."  "Progress  and  poverty"  are  the  marks 
of  modern  civilization.  The  forerunner  of 
contemporary  industrialism  is  the  nation  of  the 
nouveaux  riches  and  the  nouveaux  pauvres. 
In  the  wake  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  come  poten- 
tial good  and  unnecessary  evil;  prosperity  and 
misery,  the  Puritan  conscience  and  graft,  tem- 
perance and  debauchery,  piety  and  hypocrisy, 
law  and  injustice,  chastity  and  miscegenation, 
manufacturer  and  "hands,"  the  gentleman  and 
the  hooligan,  the  overman  and  the  submerged 
tenth.  The  overestimated  Anglo-Saxon  race 
is  a  mythical  mongrel  in  five  continents;  the 
Anglo-Saxon  institutions  inile  the  civilized 
world,  the  happiest  accident  in  the  history  of 
civilization. 

[58] 


The  Overestimated  Anglo-Saxon 

The  testimony  of  a  British  democrat,  who 
tm'ned  imperiahst,  seems  impartial:  "There  are 
some  people  who  seem  to  think  an  unlimited 
supply  of  what  we  call  the  Anglo-Saxon  race 
is  the  best  remedy  for  all  the  evils  of  the  world. 
Without  wishing  to  be  needlessly  unpatriotic, 
I  do  not  think  the  unlimited  Anglo-Saxon  is 
an  altogether  unmitigated  blessing.     The  fili- 
buster, the  mercantile  adventurer,  and  the  mis- 
sionary have  not  been  so  perfectly  successful 
between  them  in  dealing  with  the  problem  of 
the  lower  races;  for  the  mere  disappearance 
of  lower  races  before  the  rum  supplied  by  the 
trader  and  the  clothes  enjoined  by  the  mis- 
sionary (to  the  great  profit  of  the  Lancashire 
manufacturer)  is  not  quite  a  satisfactory  solu- 
tion.    What  has  been  already  said  about  the 
transmission  of  a  type  of  culture,  irrespective 
of  the  continuity  of  the  race  that  first  devel- 
oped it,  seems  to  help  one  here.     We  need  have 
less  doubt  of  the  excellence  of  our  language 
and  of  our  literature  and  of  some  of  our  insti- 
tutions than  of  the  supreme  excellence  of  our 
race,  and  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  distant 

[591 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

tribes  and  nations  regarding  Europe,  and 
Britain  not  least,  as  the  school  or  university  to 
which  they  shall  send  their  most  promising 
youth,  in  order  to  adopt  just  so  much  of  our 
civilization  as  suits  them,  so  that  they  may  work 
out  their  problems  in  their  own  manner."  ^ 

The  survival  of  the  fittest  resulted  in  the 
raw,  sturdy  Saxon  of  primitive  England.  The 
survival  of  the  fittest  resulted  in  Elizabethan 
letters  and  piracy  at  the  time  of  the  national 
awakening;  in  the  romanticists  and  capitalists 
at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century;  in  the 
overman  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth. 
Opportunity  made  insignificant  England  mis- 
tress of  the  seas,  made  the  overspecialized  busi- 
ness man  master  of  civilization.  "To  him  that 
hath  shall  be  given."  Democracy  must  accept 
the  principle  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  but 
see  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  Overman  the 
worthy  beneficiaries  of  opportunity.  A  su- 
perior race  and  civilization  will  follow  the  dif- 
fusion of  opportunity,  denied  by  its  possessors 


1  Ritchie,  D.  G.,  Darwinism,  pp.  78,  79, 

[60] 


The  Overestimated  Anglo-Saxon 


to  women  and  workmen,  the  children  of  the 
poor,  the  average  citizen,  and  the  people  of 
color.  The  survival  of  the  fittest  may,  by 
direction,  become  the  survival  of  the  best. 
Mastery  by  service  is  the  salvation  of  men  and 
of  man. 


[61] 


THE  OVERCOMPLACENT 
AMERICAN 


CHAPTER    III 

THE   OVERCOMPLACENT   AMERICAN 

THE  nervous,  energetic,  cocksure  Amer- 
ican is  not  without  a  curious  blend  of 
complacency.  He  vociferously  asserts 
his  rights,  while  he  silently  disregards  his  own 
and  others'  duties.  The  dictum  of  Pope, 
"Whatever  is,  is  right"  sums  up  his  philosophy. 
Conditions  which  are  the  result  of  rapid  and 
unstable  transformations  of  industrial  life  are 
regarded  as  permanent  and  inevitable,  and  are 
treated  as  though  they  were  the  result  of  a 
divine  fiat  delivered  at  the  dawn  of  creation. 
Our  public  and  economic  life  suffers  from 
two  disguised  afflictions — one,  historic;  the 
other,  pre-historic.  The  latter  is  the  long  stor- 
ing of  our  continent  with  its  priceless  natural 
resources;  the  former,  the  spontaneous  Min- 
erva-like birth  of  our  Federal  Constitution 
[65] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

from  the  mind  of  Alexander  Hamilton.  We 
are  too  rich  and  comfortable  to  be  under  the 
necessity  of  thinking.  There  is  poverty,  but 
it  is  relative,  and  the  pinch  is  not  yet  severe 
enough  to  produce  a  revolution.  In  addition 
to  the  constraint  of  easy  wealth,  there  is  the 
incubus  of  a  written  Constitution,  devised  for 
an  emergency  nearly  a  century  and  a  quarter 
ago,  by  men  afraid  of  democracy,  for  com- 
munities which  needed  temporarily  some  auto- 
matic political  system.  Between  the  un- 
doubted natural  resources  and  the  supposed 
supernatural  document  optimism  grows  rank. 
In  spite  of  these  invitations  to  complacency, 
the  natural  resources  in  some  localities  ap- 
proach exhaustion,  and  the  Constitution  is  be- 
ing bent  almost  to  the  point  of  breaking. 
IVIeanwhile  the  undisturbed  American  forgets 
that  both  the  country  and  the  Constitution 
grow.  The  hand  is  still  the  hand  of  Alexander 
Hamilton,  but  the  voice  is  already  the  voice 
of  the  people.  They  will  never  know  enough 
to  buy  back  their  inheritance  with  a  mess  of 
pottage,  but  they  may  regain  it  at  not  too 

[66] 


The  Overcomplacent  American 

extravagant  a  price  if  they  cease  their  com- 
placency. The  somnolent  American  regards 
politics  as  politics  when  in  fact  it  has  never 
been  anything  but  business.  It  will  be  recog- 
nized as  public  business  instead  of  private  busi- 
ness when  it  is  also  measured  by  ethics.  A  con- 
sideration of  the  ethics  of  some  of  those 
national  problems,  commonly  conceived  as 
strictly  economic  or  political,  arouses  the  hope 
that  a  constructive  consciousness  may  succeed 
the  inertia  of  complacency. 

A  logical  and  convenient  measure  of  the 
American's  excessive  amiability  is  found  in  the 
tariiF.  It  is  a  subject  we  can  discuss  without 
fear  of  effective  contradiction,  as  nobody 
knows  anything  about  it.  There  have  been 
two  commissions  appointed  to  revise  the  tariff, 
whose  reports  have  been  ignored  by  Congress. 
We  might  avail  ourselves  of  their  investiga- 
tions, but  of  course,  however  thorough  these 
were,  they  are  now  antiquated.  The  present 
commission  gives  promise  of  more  light,  but 
there  is  no  guarantee  that  it  will  be  appre- 
ciated by  Congress.     All  the  time  the  tariff 

[67] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

bills  have  been  constructed  without  regard  to 
either  justice  or  intelligence.  The  customary 
method  of  estimating  the  proper  tariffs  on 
commodities  imported  into  this  country  is  to 
exchange  votes  in  the  Ways  and  Means  com- 
mittee. The  New  England  member  has  con- 
victions about  the  tariff  on  wool,  which  he 
trades  for  the  equally  sincere  convictions  of 
a  westerner  on  hides.  Corrupt  influences  may 
have  affected  the  determination  of  certain 
tariffs,  but  the  tariff  could  be  just  as  unfair 
as  it  is  unscientific  were  all  the  members  voting 
conscientiously. 

The  fundamental  fallacy  is  in  the  assump- 
tion that  the  familiar  methods  are  wise  or  hon- 
orable. Is  it  not  just  as  immoral  to  pass  a 
tariff  by  ignorance  as  by  corruption?  The 
responsibility,  however,  does  not  end  with  the 
Ways  and  Means  committee.  The  people  of 
the  United  States  tolerate  these  methods  for 
no  better  reason  than  that  they  bring  general 
prosperity,  or  are  supposed  to  be  responsible 
for  it.  The  acquiescence  in  individual  in- 
stances is  a  conscious  perjury  of  the  intellect. 

[68] 


The  Over  complacent  American 

A  representative  Southern  lawyer,  interested 
in  various  industrial  enterprises,  has  said:  "I 
am  of  course  a  traditional  Free  Trader,  and  be- 
lieve in  the  ethics  of  Free  Trade,  but  we  need 
the  tariff  on  lumber."  This  typical  testimony 
of  the  overman  is  a  little  franker  and  more 
admirable  than  the  indifferent  and  conscience- 
less endorsement  of  the  people  at  large,  but  it 
is  also  more  intelligently  responsible. 

Another  of  the  immoralities  attendant  on 
the  present  tariff  situation  is  that  the  genuine 
Free  Trader  being  nearly  as  extinct  as  the 
Dodo,  neither  he  nor  the  party  which  regards 
itself  as  the  defender  of  his  theory  does 
anything  whatever  to  make  it  effective. 
During  the  two  terms  of  administration  by 
the  Democratic  Party  there  was  much  va- 
poring on  the  tariff,  but  not  a  cloud  as 
small  as  a  man's  hand  indicative  of  any 
change  in  the  McKinley  or  Dingley  tariff 
bills.  The  situation  is  still  more  deplorable 
now  when  a  Republican  tariff  can  only  be 
passed  with  the  assistance  of  corrupt  Demo- 
cratic votes  and  in  opposition  to  discriminating 
[69] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

Republican  votes.  The  failure  to  justify  the 
traditional  American  sense  of  humor  was  never 
more  conspicuous  than  in  the  last  political  cam- 
paign, when  both  parties  demanded  the  right 
to  revise  the  tariff  because  of  the  peculiar 
fitness  of  each.  The  public  decided  that  the 
Republican  Party,  while  more  shameless  in  its 
demand  for  this  privilege,  was  also  more 
effective,  so  that  the  complacency  of  the  Amer- 
ican people  on  the  tariff  has  now  resulted  in 
the  moral  compromise  that  rascals  who  make 
good  are  worthier  of  support  than  ineffectual 
rascals.  The  American  public  has  betrayed  its 
price,  as  unmistakably  as  a  cheap  grafting  poli- 
tician ;  the  price  is  prosperity,  which,  unaccom- 
panied by  justice,  makes  a  nation  of  grafters. 
The  tariff  may  be  an  imposition  on  the  con- 
sumer, but  it  does  produce  revenue.  The 
American  is  equally  complacent  when  indirectly 
taxed  without  any  financial  return.  Recupera- 
tion from  war  and  preparation  for  war  provide 
one  of  the  most  vexed  financial  problems  for 
us,  as  for  other  people,  but  even  in  armament- 
ridden  Europe  they  do  not  add  to  the  burden 

[70] 


The  Overcomplacent  American 

of  the  war  superstition  that  of  pensions  for 
soldiers  who  never  served  or  suffered.  No 
courageous  voice  is  any  longer  raised  in  Con- 
gress concerning  the  pension  scandal.  If  any- 
one whispers  the  suspicion  that  what  is  univer- 
sally known  may  be  true,  it  is  construed  into 
an  attack  on  the  old  soldiers.  This  is  an 
astounding  case  of  moral  obliquity.  Why 
should  the  soldiers  or  their  friends  think  them- 
selves insulted  when  it  is  suggested  that  the 
chaff  be  flayed  out?  The  leaders  in  this  select- 
ive process  ought  to  be  the  G.  A.  R.,  who 
should  not  leave  it  to  civilians,  women  and 
preachers. 

Apropos,  a  couple  of  typical  instances  may 
be  pertinent.  A  man  wanted  to  see  his  friend, 
then  our  consul  in  Berlin.  The  latter  was  not 
at  liberty  to  visit  as  he  was  compelled,  that  day, 
to  pay  out  pensions  to  six  hundred  Germans 
who  had  served  in  the  Civil  War.  The  dif- 
ference in  the  purchasing  power  of  money  en- 
abled them  to  spend  the  rest  of  their  days  with- 
out giving  service  to  native  or  adopted  land. 
After  the  Cuban  War  a  poll  was  taken  to  de- 

[71] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

termine  the  possible  demand  for  pensions.  Out 
of  a  Georgia  Regiment  three  who  had  been  in- 
jured at  the  front  made  application  for  pen- 
sions. In  one  Massachusetts  regiment,  621 
who  had  never  set  foot  in  Cuba,  thought  they 
might  want  pensions.  The  good  old  state  of 
Massachusetts  has  got  so  used  to  feeding  at  the 
trough  that  its  near-soldiers  compared  some- 
what unfavorably  with  the  Georgians,  who 
actually  served  in  the  Spanish  War.  There 
are  doubtless  millions  being  mulcted  from  our 
government  annually;  we  do  not  know  just 
how  much,  for  since  the  Spanish  American 
War  it  has  been  unpatriotic  to  protect  the  na- 
tional treasury,  except  for  the  prevention  of 
necessary  public  improvements.  No  Ameri- 
can fails  to  rejoice  in  the  fact  that  we  under- 
take to  pension  those  who  have  offered  to  lay 
down  their  lives  for  their  country,  but  what 
right  does  that  give  us  to  spend  public  funds 
to  take  care  of  those  who  only  pretend  to  have 
done  service? 

There  is  a  still  larger  question  than  this  of 
graft.     Is  the  man  who  sacrifices  his  life  in  war 

[72] 


The  Overcomplacent  American 

the  only  one  who  is  deserving  of  reward? 
What  a  gigantic  problem  it  is  to  try  to  provide 
the  American  people  with  coal!  There  never 
was  a  war  juster  than  this  daily  provision  to 
enable  us  to  cope  with  the  cold.  Yet  as  the 
miners  put  it,  they  bet  three  dollars  a  day  with 
their  employers  that  they  will  escape.  Three 
hundred  of  these  gamblers  lost  their  lives  in 
the  Cherry  mine  disaster.  The  men  at  Cherry 
were  employed  by  a  company  that  had  no  ade- 
quate capital ;  its  credit  came  from  the  railway 
which  bought  the  coal.  According  to  the  law 
a  life  is  valued  at  $5,000,  but  this  company 
could  not  pay  so  much.  Friends  of  the  miners, 
in  amicable  relations  with  the  officials  of  the 
Company  and  the  railroad,  have  agreed  to  com- 
mute the  indemnity  on  the  English  method. 
If  each  family  gets  $1500,  the  largest  amount 
they  can  hope  to  be  paid,  the  railway  company 
will  provide  the  funds.  This  is  but  one-third 
of  what  the  law  of  Illinois  allows,  in  some 
cases  not  one  sixth;  but  here  is  a  mining  com- 
pany that  can  do  no  more,  a  state  without  any 
adequate  liability  laws,  a  population  which  is 
[73] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

absolutely  dependent  on  these  miners,  and  yet 
whose  citizens  sit  dumb  and  indifferent,  if  these 
martyrs  who  offer  their  lives  daily  are  not  pro- 
tected, while  the  chances  for  loss  of  life  are 
vastly  greater  in  the  mines  than  they  are  in  any 
American  War. 

Our  pension  system  represents  only  a  frac- 
tion of  our  expenditure  for  war  and  potential 
war.  We  are  told  we  must  police  our  nations 
as  we  now  police  our  cities;  navies  and  armies 
are  growing  everywhere.  Although  the 
United  States  had  not  much  trouble  while  it 
was  weak  in  armaments,  they  are  ardently  ad- 
vocated by  our  loudmouthed  neighbors;  the 
leaders  in  this  noble  enterprise  being  the  most 
bekissed  American  officer  and  the  much  be- 
smirched Hearst  papers.  Our  business  men 
might  unite  with  business  men  of  other  nations 
to  reduce  these  expenses,  if  they  were  not  so 
complacent  or  did  not  profit  by  supplying  ma- 
terials. What  does  it  matter  whether  we  spend 
a  million  or  a  hundred  millions,  if  we  sustain 
a  navy  of  the  same  relative  strength  to  those 
of  other  nations! 

[74] 


The  Overcomplacent  American 

Although  these  expenses  now  amount  to 
seventy  per  cent,  of  our  national  budget,  we 
do  not  feel  in  this  country  the  crushing  expense 
felt  in  poorer  nations.  People  like  indirect 
taxes  because  they  do  not  know  when  these  are 
imposed.  They  are  slowly  beginning  to  think 
that  they  furnish  not  only  money,  but  lives. 
We  cannot  maintain  a  standing  army  or  navy 
without  inviting  the  shedding  of  blood;  nor 
can  we  keep  men  in  idleness  without  demoral- 
izing them.  There  is  no  barracks  of  celibates 
without  its  vices.  Part  of  the  price  we  pay  for 
a  standing  army  is  in  terms  of  feminine  as  well 
as  masculine  degradation. 

The  puerile  practice  of  spending  numerous 
millions  in  preparation  for  peace  is  one  of  the 
most  absurd  results  of  thoughtless  profit-mak- 
ing. To  tolerate  having  the  seven  great  na- 
tions of  the  world  spend  nearly  a  bilhon  and 
a  half  a  year  in  the  alleged  interest  of  civiliza- 
tion, is  to  possess  the  greatest  modern  super- 
stition. This  sum  would  provide  industrial 
education  for  all  children  between  the  ages  of 
fourteen  and  eighteen  in  these  seven  countries, 

[75] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

and  leave  enough  over  for  old  age  pensions  for 
all  the  old  people  over  sixty-five.  If  the  ex- 
penditure vi^ere  reduced  to  any  reasonable  police 
proportions  that  our  most  progressive  presi- 
dent or  congress  might  demand,  there  would 
still  be  enough  either  to  take  care  of  all  the  old 
people,  or  to  educate  the  children  for  industrial 
efficiency.^ 

We  have  not  even  the  excuse  of  patriotism 
for  carrying  deadly  weapons,  which  is  more 
common  in  this  country  than  in  any  other.  The 
reason  for  this  is  not  merely  that  our  brutal 
men  want  it,  or  the  primitive  men  demand  it, 
but  that  our  most  respectable  citizens  have  the 
habit.  The  excuse  of  protection  is  vain ;  more 
lives  are  lost  than  protected  by  this  savage  cus- 
tom. When  a  man  in  one  apartment  grows  so 
careless  that  a  woman  across  the  court  in  an- 
other apartment  house  is  shot,  it  seems  as 
though  this  form  of  the  destruction  of  life  has 
reached  the  limit  of  himian  endurance.  If  the 
assassination  of  presidents  Lincoln,  Garfield 

1  The  economic  defense  of  war  is  annihilated  by  Norman 
Angell's  Europe's  Optical  Illusion. 

[76] 


The  Over  complacent  American 

and  McKinley  and  Mayor  Harrison,  inspired 
no  remedy  but  our  silly  anarchist  exclusion 
act,  may  the  unsuccessful  attempt  on  Mayor 
Gaynor  disturb  our  lethargy!  Federal  licens- 
ing of  firearms  would  locate  all  weapons  and 
hold  owners  responsible;  but  the  overcompla- 
cent  American  might  cry,  "Centralization!" 

Is  it  appreciated  by  the  American  that  in 
Canada  three  in  every  million  lose  their  lives 
by  homicide,  while  in  the  .United  States  tlie 
number  is  129  in  a  million?  We  are  over  forty 
times  as  destructive  of  human  life  by  violence 
as  is  our  sister  country  of  the  same  race.  In 
Chicago  590  lives  were  lost  in  the  Iroquois  fire. 
Legislation  was  immediately  put  into  effect, — 
legislation  which  is  periodically  violated.  Why 
was*  not  the  whole  world  protected  against  the 
repetition  of  such  a  holocaust?  Yet  shortly 
thereafter  200  children  were  burned  to  death  in 
East  Cleveland,  and  150  women  and  children 
in  the  Boylestown,  Pa.,  fire.  The  progress  of 
vicarious  salvation  is  tedious  even  in  Christen- 
dom. Our  chief  way  of  recognizing  the  anni- 
versary of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  is 

[77] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

to  take  a  certain  number  of  lives  and  offer  them 
on  the  altar  of  boisterous  patriotism.  One  of 
the  hopeful  signs  of  the  times  is  that  the  Amer- 
ican people  are  substituting  for  their  barbaric 
way  of  celebrating  the  Fourth  of  July  a  peace 
offering  of  genuine  patriotism.  Chicago, 
Boston  and  other  cities  followed  Springfield, 
Mass.,  this  year  in  substituting  pageants  for 
human  sacrifices. 

Much  of  this  destruction  of  human  hfe  goes 
on  in  the  name  of  progress !  The  car  of  prog- 
ress, it  is  said,  must  not  be  stopped!  Are  we 
not  mistaking  a  modern  juggernaut  for  the 
car  of  progress?  Even  when,  in  revolt  against 
such  lame  pretenses,  the  protection  of  human 
life  and  the  defense  of  civilization  are  sought 
in  legislation  which  is  not  identical  with  the 
laws  of  other  states.  Immediately  there  is  dis- 
crimination and  consequent  injustice.  Our 
only  w^ay  to  get  uniform  laws  is  to  begin  a 
separate  agitation  in  one  state  after  another 
and  slowly  gain,  state  by  state,  what  federal 
legislation  could  accomplish  at  a  stroke.  We 
must  get  a  concert  of  opinion  among  these 

[78] 


The  Overcomplacent  American 

states,  which  seems  to  be  just  as  difficult  as  to 
get  a  concert  of  action  among  European  states 
for  peace.  Complacency  is  bolstered  up  by 
the  accumulated  inertia  from  years  of  apathy. 

We  need  legislation,  national  in  scope,  for 
those  affairs  which  cannot  be  regulated  by  the 
states;  but  the  Constitution  is  difficult  of  revi- 
sion ;  the  average  American  thinks  it  ought  not 
to  be  revised;  and  the  great  majority  of  people 
fear  the  centrahzation  of  legislative  power  at 
Washington.  Instead  of  devising  adequate 
machinery  to  deal  with  the  domestic  problems 
of  the  United  States,  the  federal  maid-of -all- 
work  is  now  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion. It  is  supposed  to  supplement  our  anti- 
quated constitution  by  controlling  every  new 
expression  of  twentieth  century  civilization, 
from  the  revolt  against  upper  berths  in  sleep- 
ing cars  to  the  development  of  correspondence 
schools. 

There  are  some  people,  it  is  true,  who  com- 
plain that  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion is  already  over-burdened.  It  is  now  the 
custom  to  ask  them  to  do  everything  which 
[79] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

nobody  else  has  done,  or  will  do,  and  they  un- 
complainingly undertake  these  functions.  Is 
it  not  in  strict  accordance  with  the  best  Amer- 
ican tradition  to  relieve  cabinet  officials.  Con- 
gress, and  the  state  legislatures,  not  to  mention 
citizens,  of  all  their  obligations,  and  impose 
these  upon  some  newly  created  body?  It  has 
been  seriously  proposed  to  put  upon  this  com- 
mission the  regulation  of  child  labor,  by  having 
it  forbid  the  acceptance  by  the  railways  of  the 
products  of  child  labor  when  they  reach  state 
lines.  In  lieu  of  an  amendment  to  the  con- 
stitution, or  the  exercise  of  federal  police 
power,  the  children  of  the  nation  are  to  be 
stunted  physically,  mentally,  and  morally,  un- 
less the  poor  old  Interstate  Commerce  Conmiis- 
sion  can  reach  them  indirectly. 

We  have  had  some  embarrassment  because 
our  curious  division  of  functions  between  the 
states  and  the  nation  has  prevented  our  mak- 
ing proper  reparation  to  European  countries 
for  crimes,  like  those  at  New  Orleans,  com- 
mitted in  an  individual  state.  Why  not  re- 
quire the  I.   C.   C.  to  refuse  transportation 

[80] 


The  Overcomplacent  American 

across  the  state  line  to  any  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Louisiana  until  reparation  has  been  made. 
We  are  also  troubled  by  the  varieties  of  mar- 
riage and  divorce  laws  among  the  several 
states.  Why  not  have  the  I.  C.  C.  forbid  the 
railways  to  transport  divorcees  across  political 
boundaries. 

If  we  cannot  have  federal  registration  and 
regulation  of  firearms,  why  not  have  the  I.  C. 
C.  prohibit  the  railways  carrying  concealed 
deadly  weapons,  including,  perhaps,  defective 
locomotive  boilers,  airbrakes,  couplers,  and  car- 
heaters.  It  might  even  be  within  reason  to 
expect  the  inclusion  of  exposed  instruments  of 
torture,  such  as  news-agents.  Then  there  are 
the  growing  problems  of  old  age  pensions,  in- 
come taxes,  consumption,  prize  fights,  and  the 
many  other  difficulties,  illy  regulated  because 
of  the  curious  political  divisions  of  the  United 
States.  It  might  even  be  worth  considering 
whether  the  difficulty  of  disciplining  docile  con- 
gressmen could  not  be  met  by  having  the  rail- 
ways refuse  to  carry  them  across  the  state  lines 
to  Washington  until  they  consent  to  represent 
[81] 


Democracy  arid  the  Overman 

their  constituents,  instead  of  truckling  to  the 
Speaker  of  the  House. 

The  average  American  accepts  municipal 
misgovernment  as  though  it  were  inherent  in 
American  character.  His  general  attitude  to- 
ward all  subsequent  public  improvements  is 
that  they  must  be  conditioned  on  the  accept- 
ance of  perpetual  corruption.  Even  earnest 
municipal  reformers  have  tried  to  plan  char- 
ters which  would  act  on  the  body  politic  as 
antiseptics  instead  of  tonics.  The  American 
finds  it  hard  to  believe  that  any  other  city  is 
better  governed  than  his  own.  He  discredits 
the  reports  which  come  from  a  half  hundred 
or  more  American  cities  which  are  now  being 
governed  by  the  "commission"  plan.  He  ac- 
counts for  the  superior  government  of  Euro- 
pean cities  by  the  difference  in  the  character 
of  the  people  and  the  prevalence  of  monarchical 
institutions.  The  fact  that  the  cities  of  Great 
Britain,  France,  and  Switzerland  are  controlled 
with  much  more  democracy  than  those  in  Amer- 
ica is  either  unknown  or  inexplicable  to  him. 
That  there  are  many  cities  in  South  America 

[82] 


The  Overcomplacent  American 

the  government  of  which  would  put  to  shame 
any  city  of  the  United  States  he  does  not  know 
and  would  not  believe.  Is  there  no  other  ade- 
quate explanation  of  this  American  attitude 
except  that  we  are  not  intelligent  enough  to 
govern  ourselves?  We  have  not  known 
enough,  it  is  true,  but  we  do  not  lack  the  ca- 
pacity for  knowledge;  we  might  learn  if  we 
were  not  so  ridiculously  overcomplacent.  The 
present  rapid  advance  of  the  American  city  is 
due  to  our  partial  recovery  from  this  benumb- 
ing self-satisfaction. 

The  attitude  of  the  comfortable  person  is 
nowhere  more  conspicuously  futile  than  in  his 
conception  of  penal  institutions.  The  moral 
sense  of  the  people  of  this  country  demands 
the  punishment  of  offenders,  although  without 
giving  any  special  thought  to  the  connection 
between  the  magnitude  of  the  offense  and  the 
penalty.  The  easy  going  American,  who  pos- 
sesses a  virtue  which  has  never  been  tested, 
finds  it  so  difficult  to  understand  the  provoca- 
tion to  crime  that  he  is  indifferent  to  the  fate 
of  the  criminal.     He  does  not  know  that  most 

[83] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

penal  institutions  promote  crime  rather  than 
hinder  it;  or,  that  the  delays  of  the  law  are 
more  responsible  for  the  encouragement  of 
criminals  than  original  sin ;  or,  that  the  graver 
the  offense,  the  less  the  likelihood  of  punish- 
ment. A  twentieth  century  advance  has  been 
made  by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  in 
deciding  that  the  punishment  must  be  related 
to  the  offense. 

Only  a  small  fraction  of  homicidal  crimes 
are  ever  punished  and  some  of  these,  by  lynch- 
ing the  culprit,  or  someone  else,  involve  the 
brutalizing  of  hundreds  of  people.  In  the  city 
of  Cairo,  Illinois,  clergymen  defended  the  mob 
leaders  on  the  ground  that  justice  was  dilatory. 
While  the  uncaught  criminal  is  treated  with 
unwarranted  generosity,  those  who  are  caught 
receive  punishment  of  undue  severity.  France 
does  not  punish  civil  offenders  for  the  first 
infraction  of  law,  but  gives  a  parole  for  three 
years.  If  another  offense  is  committed  within 
that  time,  the  penalty  is  doubled.  In  a  few 
cities  only  have  we  adopted  such  a  wise  system 
even  for  juvenile  offenders,  for  we  do  not  yet 

[84] 


The  Overcomplacent  American 

see  that  leniency  plus  promptness  in  the  appli- 
cation of  the  law  is  infinitely  superior  to  sever- 
ity with  delay  in  enforcement. 

In  addition  to  this  evidence  of  carelessness, 
indifference,  and  inhumanity,  it  is  still  true 
that  people  without  money  have  difficulty  in 
securing  justice  through  the  courts.  The  poor 
are  constantly  harassed  by  their  creditors  and 
frequently,  under  threat  of  the  law,  compelled 
to  pay  their  debts  over  and  over  again,  while 
they  cannot  make  good  their  claims  against 
individuals  or  organizations  for  injuries  to 
body  or  property.  They  have  not  even  the 
same  facility  in  securing  divorce  as  the  wealthy. 
They  cannot  defend  themselves  against  unjust 
taxation.  The  small  number  of  people  who 
secure  damage  claims  against  corporations, 
with  the  assistance  of  sympathetic  juries,  is  in- 
consequent compared  with  the  mass  of  people 
to  whom  the  law  is  unjust.  The  old  English 
couplet  is  as  applicable  to-day  as  when  the 
poor  man  was  being  driven  by  the  enclosure 
acts  to  make  way  for  the  rich  man's  sheep: 
"The  law  locks  up  the  man  or  woman  who 

[85] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

steals  the  goose  from  off  the  common,  but  lets 
the  greater  villain  loose  who  steals  the  common 
off  the  goose."  Stealing  fowl  may  still  be 
punished  even  in  the  Black  Belt,  but  stealing 
Africa  or  Alaska  has,  hitherto,  been  done  with 
impunity. 

Overcomplacency  extends  to  that  industrial 
life  where  Americans  are  so  strenuous.  It  is 
still  the  tradition  that  competition  is  the  life 
of  trade.  This  is  a  self-evident  truth  when 
competition  is  free,  which,  as  everyone  knows, 
rarely  happens  to-day.  Very  few  of  the  big 
economic  organizations  of  the  day  are  com- 
peting, or  they  compete  merely  for  excellence 
after  prices  are  regulated.  This,  it  is  true,  is 
a  superior  form  of  competition,  approaching 
the  emulation  of  the  future,  but  it  is  not  the 
competition  which  the  superstitious  regard  as 
the  life  of  trade.  If  one  wishes  to  go  from 
Chicago  to  various  points  west,  he  will  find  a 
choice  of  excellent  trains,  the  best  in  the  coun- 
try, but  the  time  and  the  cost  of  tickets  are  the 
same  on  all  roads.  What  is  happening  on  the 
railways  is  characteristic  of  the  twentieth  cen- 

[86] 


The  Overcomplacent  'American 

tury  method  of  pools,  combinations  and  trusts. 
It  is  inevitable  that  progressive  industrial  or- 
ganizations, antagonized  by  the  reactionaries, 
should  be  misunderstood  by  the  overcompla- 
cent. What  is  needed  now  is  not  a  revival  of 
eighteenth  century  competition  but  the  regula- 
tion of  monopoly.  Could  anything  better  hap- 
pen for  the  life  of  the  country  than  the  unifica- 
tion of  all  the  railways  under  uniform  control? 
Railwaymen  and  statesmen  may  dispute  as  to 
the  form  of  regulation  but  legislators  must 
stop  trying  to  enforce  artificial  competition. 

The  progressive  overman  must  obey  the  law, 
but  the  overcomplacent  citizen  must  make  the 
law  progressive.  * 

Much  of  the  legislation  to  secure  justice  in 
railway  rates  is  ill-advised  because  of  the 
greater  necessity  for  improved  service.  Double 
tracks,  safety  devices,  union  stations,  and  good 
operation  are  more  immediate  than  "two  cents 
a  mile,"  and  do  not  necessarily  prevent  that  re- 
duction of  rates  which  will  encourage  enough 
increased  travel  to  pay  for  all  added  expenses. 
The  Cleveland  street  railway  system  seems  to 
[87] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

be  run  at  a  profit  on  a  three-cent  fare  without 
injury  to  the  service,  but  in  most  metropoHtan 
communities  the  first  need  is  for  a  unified  sys- 
tem, and  in  all  cities  a  reduced  rate  is  less  im- 
perative than  enough  cars  to  provide  seats  for 
the  passengers  at  rush  hours.  Perhaps  the 
people  should  have  the  choice  of  cheap  fares  or 
good  accommodations,  but  the  vast  majority 
of  American  citizens  and  most  statesmen  and 
publicists  have  been  sitting  calmly  by  waiting 
for  men  hke  Tom  Johnson  to  work  out,  in  sweat 
and  blood,  the  solution  of  the  transportation 
problem. 

The  examples  of  overcomplacency  are  im- 
material. Its  application  is  not  limited  to  the 
tariff,  pensions,  industrial  accidents,  army  and 
navy,  the  destruction  of  fife,  federal  and  state 
legislation,  municipal  mis-government,  penal 
institutions,  and  the  competition  of  trade. 
Like  the  hook-worm,  it  threatens  to  undermine 
the  constitution  of  the  nation  and  induces  a 
lassitude,  which  regards  with  indifference  the 
great  fundamental  issues.  A  correct  diag- 
nosis of  this  grave  American  ailment  discovers 

[88] 


The  Overcomplacent  American 

its  cause  in  the  rich  resources  of  our  country, 
making  hfe  easy,  and  the  antiquated  federal 
constitution,  obscuring  the  civic  vision.  As  the 
Chicago  Tribune  puts  it:  "Truth,  crushed  to 
earth,  was  rising,  but  with  exceeding  slowness. 
'Why  should  I  hurry,  anyhow?'  said  Truth. 
'The  poet  says  the  "eternal  years"  are  mine.' 
With  which  lame  excuse  she  also  justified  her- 
self for  never  quite  catching  up  with  a  fugitive 
Lie." 

The  corrective  for  overcomplacency,  as  for 
other  forms  of  lethargy,  is  starvation.  Jeshu- 
ran  has  waxed  too  fat  to  kick.  A  prolonged 
industrial  depression  would  doubtless  make 
people  think.  It  might  be  possible  to  obviate 
the  necessity  for  such  a  drastic  remedy  by 
inoculating  the  American  people  with  the  virus 
of  fearless  thought.  The  first  moral  responsi- 
bility of  intelligent  Americans  is  to  abandon 
their  overcomplacency  long  enough  to  reason 
independently  of  purse  or  superstition.  They 
will  then  find  the  nation's  wealth  neither  in 
hard  rock  nor  dry  document.  They  will  be 
convinced  "that  the  true  veins  of  wealth  are 

1891 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

purple — and  not  in  Rock  but  in  Flesh — per- 
haps even  that  the  final  outcome  and  consum- 
mation of  all  wealth  is  in  the  producing  as 
many  as  possible  full-breathed,  bright-eyed, 
and  happy-hearted  human  creatures." 


[90] 


THE  OVERTHROWN 
SUPERSTITION  OF  SEX 


CHAPTER   IV; 

THE  OVERTHROWN   SUPERSTITION   OF   SEX 

THE  day  of  the  woman  is  dawning;  the 
superstition  of  sex  is  overthrown.  The 
arrival  of  the  day  of  the  woman  does  not 
guarantee  that  all  the  women  have  arrived; 
rather  that  the  men  have  noted  her  arrival. 
The  National  Conference  of  Charities  and 
Corrections  has  chosen  Jane  Addams  for  its 
first  woman  president,  but  we  are  not  so  moved 
as  when  women  were  first  admitted  to  the  plat- 
forms of  anti-slavery  meetings,  despite  the  ob- 
jections of  riotous  reformers.  Children, 
church  and  cuisine  no  longer  monopolize  the 
energies  of  the  modern,  healthy  woman,  be- 
cause the  major  part  of  her  household  activities 
have  been  eliminated  by  the  industrial  revolu- 
tion. There  is  not  enough  domestic  work  for 
[93] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

all  of  woman's  time,  any  more  than  there  is 
agricultural  work  for  man. 

The  leisure  which  may  be  enjoyed  by  a  con- 
temporary woman,  while  neglecting  neither 
domestic  labors  nor  the  rearing  of  children,  is 
typically  represented  by  the  Boston  woman 
whose  husband  left  her  an  interest  and  respon- 
sibilities in  the  catering  establishment  of  a  great 
railway  station.  She  helped  to  administer 
this,  until  she  sold  out  to  become  a  stockbroker, 
without  interfering  with  her  social  and  public 
activities,  which  include  the  promotion  of  local 
educational  interests,  an  executive  position  in 
a  large  fraternal  organization,  equal-suffrage 
and  international  peace  propaganda,  and  other 
similar  "outside"  activities,  while  she  is  inci- 
dentally the  mother  of  ten  and  a  grandmother 
— at  forty!  A  New  York  woman,  after  hav- 
ing had  six  children,  has  turned  lawj^er,  and 
although  one  of  her  three  grown  sons  is  in  the 
same  profession,  she  has  gone  to  Europe  to 
assist  in  settling  an  estate  for  New  York  cli- 
ents. The  controversy  between  two  opera 
singers  as  to  the  possibility  of  being  a  good 

[94] 


The  Overthrown  Superstition  of  Sex 

artist  and  having  children  at  the  same  time,  is 
answered  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  newspapers 
by  a  photograph  of  Mme.  Louise  Homer's 
twins.  Why  should  they  hamper  professional 
success  when  Mme.  Schumann-Heink  is  the 
mother  of  eight  children! 

The  endurance  of  mothers  has  been  so  long 
familiar  that  the  masculine  mind  quite  gener- 
ally forgets  it  while  thinking  complacently  of 
the  "weaker  sex."  It  excites  little  comment  to 
have  a  few  children,  but  the  athletic  acliieve- 
ments  of  the  contemporary  Amazon  stun  the 
sex  of  brawn.  Mrs.  Hovey,  who  has  recently 
described  her  ascent  of  La  Soufriere,  the  vol- 
cano of  INIartinique,  was  onty  the  first  woman 
to  make  the  ascent,  having  been  followed  by 
Madame  La  Croix.  This  is  less  astounding 
than  the  mountain-climbing  of  Mrs.  Workman, 
involving  among  others  a  mountain  in  Turke- 
stan twenty -one  thousand  feet  high.  Yet  this 
pales  before  the  virgin  feats  of  Miss  Annie 
Peck  in  the  Andes. 

INIuch  of  the  feminine  energy  let  loose  by 
modern  domestic  improvements  is  being  util- 
[95] 


Democracy  arid  the  Overman 

ized  in  women's  clubs.  The  heraldic  sign  of 
the  age  is  the  club-woman  rampant,  and  she  is, 
when  most  unconscious  of  it,  a  powerful  lib- 
erator. The  conditions  that  make  club  organ- 
izations, rather  than  the  results  achieved  by 
them,  mark  the  day  of  the  woman.  While 
women's  clubs  are  modern — revolutionary  in 
fact — we  have  already  become  so  accustomed 
to  them  that  we  forget  how  they  evidence  the 
subtle  undermining  of  conservatism.  The  idle 
woman  of  the  metropolis,  feebly  imitating  man 
in  her  social  club,  may  be  in  process  of  eman- 
cipation, but  the  patent  evidence  of  the  ascent 
of  woman  is  in  the  tacit  recognition  of  human 
merit  in  the  female.  She  is  no  longer  merely 
captivating,  but,  at  last,  really  competing  with 
man  and  complementing  him. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  a  woman  is  president 
of  a  Bureau  of  Social  Requirements  in  New 
York.  Neither  is  it  a  mark  of  the  new  age 
that  ]Mrs.  Osborn  opened  a  tea-shop  or  ]\Irs. 
Gou\'erneur  JMorris  a  toy-shop,  or  that  Mary 
Elizabeth  makes  candies.  These  are  distinctly 
feminine  occupations,  and  it  is  much  more  sig- 
[90] 


The  Overthrown  Superstition  of  Sex 

nificant  to  learn  that  the  president  of  Mount 
Holyoke  College  has  stepped  into  a  new  presi- 
dent's house  completely  furnished  by  two 
women  designers,  and  that  in  New  York,  Chi- 
cago, Louisville,  Harrisburg,  Boise,  Idaho,  and 
elsewhere,  women  have  no  difficulty  in  compet- 
ing with  men  in  the  decoration  and  furnishing 
of  houses  and  public  buildings.  Since  an  en- 
ergetic woman  without  children  ( and  even  em- 
perors and  presidents  will  probably  admit  that 
women  should  not  be  compelled  to  have  chil- 
dren) can  no  longer  employ  all  of  her  time  in 
the  decoration  of  her  own  house,  it  is  logical 
that  she  should  follow  the  industrial  revolution 
into  avenues  related  to  domestic  occupations. 
The  inventive  faculty,  commonly  and  prop- 
erly supposed  to  be  masculine,  is  most  naturally 
directed  to  domestic  advantage  when  possessed 
by  a  woman.  A  new  mechanical  device  for  a 
woman's  work-basket,  invented  by  a  woman, 
is  less  surprising  to-day  than  was  the  fact  that 
Mrs.  Nancy  M.  Johnson,  of  Washington,  was 
the  first  person  to  take  out  a  patent  for  an  ice- 
cream freezer,  in  1843,  selling  the  right  for 
[97] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

$41,000;  yet  both  of  these  inventions  pertain 
to  woman's  traditional  occupations.  The 
broom  has  been  an  accepted  symbol  of  woman's 
sovereignty  in  all  ages,  but  Mrs.  Bissell  has 
found  a  successful  business  career,  not  by 
sweeping  cobwebs  from  the  sky,  but  with  the 
purely  mundane  carpet-sweeper. 

The  latest  developments  mark  the  new  day 
by  completely  ignoring  the  economic  traditions 
of  woman.  Women  are  serving  as  guides  in 
Maine;  there  is  a  woman  wireless  operator  on 
a  steamship  on  Puget  Sound ;  another  is  a  pilot 
on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  Rivers ;  the  grand- 
daughter of  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  is  a  civil 
and  hydraulic  engineer,  a  member  of  the  Amer- 
ican Society  of  Civil  Engineers.  There  have 
been  many  women  school  principals  and  super- 
intendents, but  the  choice  of  a  feminine  super- 
intendent of  the  Chicago  schools,  by  a  "busi- 
ness" administration  of  men,  puts  this 
responsible  office  in  a  new  category,  which  re- 
ceived added  recognition  in  her  election  to  the 
presidency  of  the  National  Education  Asso- 
ciation. 

[98] 


The  Overthrown  Superstition  of  Sex 

The  frank  adoption  of  masculine  methods, 
in  order  to  beat  the  men  at  their  own  game,  is 
modestly  exemplified  by  the  young  Bryn 
Mawr  graduate  who  published  the  following 
enticing  advertisement : 

"Situation  wanted — Are  you  looking  for  brains?  For 
an  experienced  correspondent  who  can  write  convincing 
letters,  letters  that  get  what  they  are  sent  to  get?  A 
clever  woman  who  can  write  clever  ads  or  clever  talks 
on  any  subject  and  from  any  point  of  view?  Some 
one  expert  in  the  use  of  stenography  and  typewriting? 
A  hybrid  from  the  university  and  business  world?  One 
who  knows  people  and  conditions  and  who  can  meet  all 
combinations  of  the  two  with  unwreckable  savoir  faire?. 
That  describes  me  exactly.  Address  B.  A.,  281, 
Tribune." 

Is  it  surprising  that  she  was  swamped  with 
answers? 

Women  who  attain  success  in  the  most  mas- 
culine of  industries  and  financial  positions  are 
evidently  multiplying.  The  statistician  who 
prepares  the  annual  report  on  the  cotton  crop 
for  the  Government  is  a  woman,  who  is  said 
to  have  increased  her  income  from  eight  dollars 
[99] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

a  week  to  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year.  Tren- 
ton, New  Jersey,  has  recently  reported  fifteen 
business  women  whose  occupations  are  scarcely 
feminine.  They  include  barbering,  wholesale 
tobacco,  real  estate,  undertaking,  pharmacy, 
jewelry,  piano-dealing,  insurance,  shoe-repair- 
ing, banking,  and  charcoal.  South  Chicago's 
situation  is  more  spectacular,  if  less  creditable. 
In  addition  to  women  doctors  and  police,  a 
woman  runs  the  worst  saloon  and  another  the 
best  undertaking  establishment,  so  that  from 
birth  to  death,  even  by  "the  broad  way  that 
leadeth  to  destruction,"  a  feminine  hand  may 
guide.  It  is  only  just  to  South  Chicago  to 
observe  that  a  woman  is  injecting  educational 
"lectures"  into  its  vaudeville  houses,  following 
the  example  of  a  talented  woman  in  Boston 
who  conducts  the  most  progressive  cheap  the- 
ater. 

Reassurance  may  be  found  in  Des  Moines, 
Iowa,  which  has  a  life  insurance  company 
whose  president  is  a  woman.  The  vice-presi- 
dent of  a  large  insurance  company  is  reported 
to  pay  a  salary  of  twelve  thousand  dollars  to 
[100] 


The  Overthrown  Superstition  of  Sex 

a  woman  assistant  who  began  as  his  stenog- 
rapher, after  renouncing  school-teaching. 
The  mother  of  three  sons  and  a  daughter  is 
the  owner  and  manager  of  the  Boston  Store  in 
Chicago,  which  represents  an  investment  of 
fifteen  millions  and  the  emploj^ment  of  3,000 
people.  Since  her  husband  died  six  years  ago, 
she  has  added  a  twelve-story  fire-proof  struc- 
ture, increasing  the  size  of  the  store  four  times. 
The  president  of  the  Herrman  Lumber  and 
Furniture  Companies,  a  woman,  pays  three 
thousand  men  two  million  dollars  annually  in 
wages.  These  instances  may  be  exceptional, 
but  obviously  business  women  are  more  numer- 
ous, as  not  only  statistics,  but  the  increase  of 
business  women's  clubs  and  leagues  in  various 
cities  indicate. 

INIore  momentous  for  the  future  of  the  sex 
is  the  astounding  increase  in  the  number  of 
women  employed  in  industries,  the  five  million 
women  workers  in  the  United  States  being 
found  in  two  hundred  and  ninety-five  of  the 
three  hundred  and  three  occupations  listed  in 
the  last  census.  Even  more  remarkable  than 
[101] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

the  extent  of  their  employment  is  the  propor- 
tionally larger  increase  of  women  wage-earn- 
ers. The  number  of  women  gainfully  em- 
ployed and  the  number  of  women  employed  in 
each  of  the  five  large  occupational  groups 
have  increased  at  a  greater  rate  per  cent,  than 
the  total  population,  the  total  male  population, 
or  the  total  female  population.  Most  curi- 
ously, the  increase  is  not  in  traditionally  fem- 
inine activities,  for  the  percentage  of  increase 
between  1890  and  1900  was  greater  for  men 
than  for  women  in  the  following  occupations: 
launderers  and  laundresses,  servants  and  wait- 
resses, cotton-mill  operatives,  dressmakers,  mil- 
liners, seamstresses,  tailors  and  tailoresses. 
Men  are  supplanting  women  as  women  sup- 
plant men.  Instead  of  determining  sex  char- 
acteristics by  old  wives'  fables  or  the  preposses- 
sions of  gentlemen  of  the  old  school,  economic 
functions  are  being  adapted  to  individual  pro- 
ficiency. The  perennial  discussion  of  equal 
pay  for  men's  and  women's  work,  whatever 
may  be  its  economic  and  social  results,  testifies 
to  the  power  of  women  in  the  new  order  to 
[102] 


The  Overthrown  Superstition  of  Seoo 

raise  hitherto  undreamed  of  questions,  as  does 
also  the  organization  of  women  into  unions 
with  men  or  by  themselves.     The  success  of 
the  Women's  Trade  Union  League  is  largely 
due  to  the  fact  that  working-women  have  the 
assistance  of  a  larger  number  of  "emancipated" 
members  of  their  own  sex  than  working-men. 
Women  are  not  only  becoming  a  factor  in 
the  industrial  world,  they  are  making  new  con- 
tributions to  all  other  human  interests.     The 
professions  include  women  now  as  college  pro- 
fessors,   clergymen,    doctors,    lawyers,    archi- 
tects,   landscape    architects,    even    engineers. 
There  are  said  to  be  two  hundred  and  fifty 
women  physicians  in  New  York  City.     This 
perhaps  is  not  so  surprising  as  that  a  colored 
woman  graduate  of  the  Philadelphia  Woman's 
Medical  College  has  been  admitted  to  the  prac- 
tice of  medicine  in  South  Carolina.     Women 
are  serving  as  sanitary  inspectors  and  super- 
intendents of  street-cleaning  and  refuse-dis- 
posal in  Chicago,  Boston,  and  elsewhere.     It  is 
not  generally  known  that  Mrs.  Ellen  M.  Rich- 
ards, of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
[103] 


T>einocracy  and  the  Overman 

nology,  has  the  distinction  of  having  trained 
most  of  the  sanitary  engineers  in  the  United 
States. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  phenomenon 
of  the  moment  is  the  endeavor  of  women  in 
private  Hfe  to  do  pubHc  work  left  undone  by 
men  and  to  do  it  without  any  of  the  prestige  of 
poHtical  independence.  The  Woman's  Forum 
of  New  York,  discontented  with  the  mere  dis- 
cussion of  pubhc  questions  in  which  they  are 
not  supposed  to  participate,  have  undertaken 
an  investigation  of  the  bread-hne  which  dis- 
graces the  alleged  civilization  of  the  metrop- 
olis. A  talented  woman  la^\yer  begging 
organized  but  unenfranchised  women  to  coop- 
erate with  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Vagrancy  is  an  anomaly  which  could  not  have 
been  witnessed  in  an  earlier  stage  of  the  world's 
development. 

The  confusion  regarding  woman's  present 
function  ought  to  be  relieved  by  the  successful 
municipal  housekeeping  experiments  being 
conducted  throughout  the  country.  Even  in 
disfranchised  Washington,  D.  C,  a  city  house- 
[104] 


The  Overthrown  Superstition  of  Sex 

cleaning  crusade  has  been  inspired  by  the 
women,  which  has  resulted  in  the  cleaning  of 
3,700  vacant  lots,  500  private  alleys  and  10,000 
cellars,  wood-sheds  and  back  yards.  Many 
cities  in  the  South  and  West  have  an  annual 
spring  cleaning  day,  conducted  by  the  women, 
doing  work  which  is,  of  course,  logically  femi- 
nine, but  which  can  be  done  adequately  only 
by  the  public  authorities. 

The  Business  Men's  League  of  New  Or- 
leans has  given  Miss  Kate  M.  Gordon  a  gold 
medal  in  recognition  of  her  services  to  the  city 
as  president  of  the  Woman's  Drainage  and 
Sewerage  League.  It  was  largely  through 
her  efforts  that  the  women  of  New  Orleans 
got  tax  suffrage,  and,  as  president  of  the 
Drainage  and  Sewerage  League,  she  is  said  to 
have  cast  more  votes  than  any  other  citizafibf 
the  United  States.  The  women,  if  they  so 
prefer,  may  vote  by  proxy.  Miss  Gordon,  it 
is  declared,  cast  more  than  one  hundred  of 
these  proxy  votes. 

National  attention  has  been  attracted  to  the 
pubHc  services  of  Miss  Kate  Barnard    Com- 
[105] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

missioner  of  Charities  and  Corrections  for 
Oklahoma.  She  had  so  much  more  to  do  with 
the  framing  of  the  new  constitution  than  any- 
other  one  person  that  she  was,  despite  her  own 
protests  and  those  of  conventional  politicians, 
well-nigh  unanimously  chosen  for  a  position 
which  was  created  for  her.  Miss  Barnard, 
whose  feminine  instincts  have  given  her  a 
vision  of  the  possibilities  of  democracy  in  this 
frontier  State,  was,  however,  so  hampered  by 
the  laborious  masculine  logic  of  her  grateful 
supporters  that  she  had  to  acquiesce  in  the  pop- 
ular belief  that  there  is  no  need  of  the  ballot 
so  long  as  men  do  everything  a  woman  wants. 
The  imaginary  line  between  public  and  pri- 
vate life  is  so  much  clearer  in  the  mind  of  the 
average  American  than  it  is  in  fact,  that  social 
organization,  although  hampered  by  curious 
political  limitations,  moves  forward  more  rap- 
idly than  popular  thought.  When  it  becomes 
recognized  that  constitutions,  charters  and 
laws  must  be  fitted  to  the  public  work  to  be 
done  rather  than  the  work  conformed  to  exist- 
ing statutes,  the  chief  objection  to  the  public 
[106] 


The  Overthrown  Superstition  of  Sex 

activity  of  women  will  be  automatically  re- 
moved. It  is  certainly  a  violation  of  all  the 
precious  sentiments  of  chivalry  and  political 
superstition  that  eighty  thousand  public  docu- 
ments should  have  been  signed  by  the  hand  of 
a  woman  in  the  year  1908,  with  the  name  of 
iTheodore  Roosevelt. 

This  form  of  the  feminine  invasion  is  em- 
phasized by  the  Des  Moines  (Iowa)  Capital: 

"Women  were  not  slow  to  take  advantage  of  tfie  op- 
portunities created  by  the  promulgation  of  the  civil 
service  law  in  1883,  and  their  endeavors  to  secure  Fed- 
eral places  have  increased  rather  than  diminished  since 
that  time.  Unlike  men,  their  efforts  are  confined  almost 
wholly  to  securing  appointment  through  competitive  ex- 
amination, inasmuch  as  political  appointments  are  still 
closed  to  them.  Women  make  a  considerably  better 
showing  in  examinations.  Taking  the  stenographer- 
typewriter  examination  as  an  index,  an  examination  that 
is  conceded  to  be  the  most  difficult  clerical  examination 
offered  by  the  civil  service  commission,  recent  statistics 
show  that  of  the  women  taking  the  examination  fifty 
per  cent,  passed,  while  but  forty-seven  per  cent,  of  the 
men  were  so  fortunate.  In  the  examination  for  depart- 
mental clerks,  seventy-four  per  cent,  of  the  women  passed 
and  but  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  men." 

[107] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

A  more  conspicuous  denial  of  tradition  is 
found  in  the  appointment  of  women  detectives 
and  police.  Chicago,  New  York  and  Bayonne, 
New  Jersey,  are  among  the  places  thus  served 
by  women. 

With  this  steady  march  of  the  logic  of  events, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  agitation  for  equal 
suffrage  has  grown  more  vigorous  and  the  op- 
position more  desperate.  The  Woman's 
Municipal  Leagues  of  New  York  and  Boston, 
organized  to  instruct  the  women  in  civic  affairs, 
and  console  them,  by  the  privilege  of  public 
service,  for  the  denial  of  the  ballot,  are  proving 
so  efficient  that  the  anti-suffragists'  claim  of 
woman's  incompetency  seems  threatened  in  the 
house  of  its  friends. 

The  American  claim  that  woman  enjoys  ex- 
ceptional privileges  here  which  vitiate  the  suf- 
frage movement  overlooks  the  necessity  of 
balancing  certain  privileges  against  the  lack 
of  others.  The  State  Senate  of  California  de- 
feated the  equal  guardianship  bill  the  other 
day.  Considering  the  youth  and  freshness  of 
this  Western  State,  such  an  action  is  in  painful 
[108] 


The  Overthrown  Superstition  of  Seoc 

contrast  with  the  multiphcation  of  women 
parish  and  municipal  councilors  in  Great 
Britain,  the  extension  of  municipal  suffrage 
to  propertyless  Norwegian  women,  the  recent 
election  of  seven  women  out  of  forty-two 
municipal  councilors  at  Copenhagen,  the 
women  in  the  Parliament  of  Finland,  and  the 
astounding  rapidity  of  the  development  of  the 
feminist  movement  in  Turkey.  A  writer  on 
the  Young  Turk  movement  furnishes  this 
eye-opener:  "It  may  sound  heretical  to  say  that 
the  better  class  of  Turkish  women  are  the  su- 
periors of  American  women  in  cultivation. 
Well  educated  and  with  more  leisure,  since  they 
do  not  have  to  spend  so  much  of  their  time  as 
their  civilized  sisters  in  frivolous  pursuits,  they 
give  their  attention  to  thinking."  From  the 
promotion  of  a  feminine  federation  of  South 
African  aborigines,  to  the  free  participation 
of  women  in  the  political  affairs  of  Australasia 
it  seems  to  be  true  that  "there  is  no  speech  nor 
language  where  their  voice  is  not  heard.  Their 
line  is  gone  out  through  all  the  earth,  and  their 
words  to  the  end  of  the  world." 
[109] 


democracy  and  the  Overman 

Equally  significant,  and  for  the  Western 
world  more  immediately  hopeful,  is  the  en- 
trance of  women  into  all  worthy  human  activi- 
ties. The  five  million  women  wage-earners  in 
the  United  States  are  not  unique.  There  are  six 
million  in  Great  Britain !  The  successful  busi- 
ness and  professional  women  of  America  rep- 
resent only  the  translation  into  our  industrial 
country  of  the  familiar  women  hotel-keepers 
and  landed  proprietors  of  Europe.  In  the 
realm  of  hygiene  the  trained  nurse  and  the 
doctor  are  supplemented  by  the  multitudes  of 
women  who  are  contributing  to  public  health 
through  hospitals,  day  nurseries,  and  the  tuber- 
culosis, pure  food  and  other  agitations. 

In  the  social  world  woman  is  not  only  hold- 
ing her  time-honored  position,  but  is  learning 
the  art  of  organization.  Her  entrance  into 
political  life  is  so  rapid  that  the  reluctant  pa-- 
pers  must  chronicle  new  accomplishments 
almost  daily.  In  the  artistic  world  there  is  lit- 
tle to  add  except  numerically,  for  woman  has 
always  had  her  place  there.  The  intellectual 
life  not  only  affords  the  distingushed  examples 
[110] 


The  Overthrown  Superstition  of  Sex 

which  have  for  all  the  centuries  been  evident, 
but  the  newer  democratic  forms  of  education 
meet  with  an  even  heartier  response  from 
women  than  from  men.  The  competition  of 
women  has  become  so  serious  that  several  co- 
educational colleges  have  adopted  segregation 
for  the  protection  of  the  men.  The  predomi- 
nance of  girls  in  high  schools  has  been  the  chief 
factor  in  introducing  those  manual  subjects 
which  are  responsible  for  the  increase  in  the 
attendance  of  the  boys.  No  season  now  passes 
without  some  distinguished  additions  to  the  list 
of  honors  conferred  by  the  universities  on 
accomphshed  women,  and  thereby  on  them- 
selves, of  which  the  degrees  given  to  Julia 
Ward  Howe  and  Jane  Addams  are  notable  in- 
stances. 

In  the  moral  and  religious  life  women  have 
been  traditionally  faithful.  But  the  new  day 
is  characterized  by  feminine  leadership  of  phil- 
anthropic and  religious  institutions,  including 
many  preachers  in  liberal  churches  and  more 
than  one  conspicuous  founder  of  a  new  religion. 
Still  more  significant  is  the  gradual  establish- 

[111] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

ment  of  a  common  code  of  morals  for  both 
sexes.  Years  ago  the  Women's  Christian 
Temperance  Union,  with  a  foresight  not 
always  characteristic  of  its  tactics,  gave  im- 
petus to  the  contemporary  tendency,  which  is 
not  feminist  but  human,  in  stating  such  prin- 
ciples as: 

"We  believe  that  God  created  both  man  and  woman  in 
His  own  image,  and,  therefore,  we  believe  in  one  stand- 
ard of  purity  for  both  men  and  women,  and  in  the  equal 
right  of  all  to  hold  opinions  and  to  express  the  same 
with  equal  freedom. 

"We  believe  in  a  living  wage;  in  an  eight-hour  day; 
in  courts  of  conciliation  and  arbitration;  in  justice  as 
opposed  to  greed  of  gain;  in  '  peace  on  earth  and  good 
will  to  men.'  " 

The  day  of  the  woman  is  not  the  day  of  her 
economic  or  political  or  intellectual  recogni- 
tion; it  is  not  the  day  of  the  insinuation  of  a 
spurious  superiority;  it  is  not  the  day  of  defec- 
tion from  her  prehistoric  function ;  it  is  the  day 
of  the  rejection  of  the  superstition  of  sex  and 
the  acceptance  of  her  common  humanity. 

[112] 


THE  OVERDUE  WAGES  OF  THE 
OVERMAN'S  WIFE 


CHAPTER   V 

THE  OVERDUE  WAGES  OF  THE  OVERMAN'S  WIFE 

THE  curse  of  the  overman  is  mastery  with- 
out service.  His  standard  being  busi- 
ness, not  Hfe,  he  has  a  pecuniary  meas- 
ure for  labor,  art,  education,  statecraft, 
moraHty  or  even  wifehood.  He  is  chivakous 
and  conventional,  but  neither  just  nor  demo- 
cratic, industrially  the  master  of  men  but  so- 
cially the  slave  of  tradition.  Tradition  esti- 
mates woman  by  her  value  to  man,  not  to  the 
race.  The  most  famous  description  of  a  virtu- 
ous woman,  and  one  accepted  equally  by  both 
sexes,  is  that  which  has  been  attributed  to  Sol- 
omon's mother: 

"Who  can  find  a  virtuous  woman,  for  her 
price  is  far  above  rabies."  (The  patriarchal 
estimate  of  virtue  is  thus  evident.) 

"The  heart  of  her  husband  shall  safely  ti*ust 

[115] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

in  her  so  that  he  shall  have  no  need  of  spoil." 
(Thus  removing  the  temptation  which  con- 
fronts the  modern  money  king,  who  must  pro- 
vide for  his  ambitious  wife's  "conspicuous  con- 
sumption.") 

"She  will  do  him  good  and  not  evil  all  the 
days  of  her  life.  She  seeketh  wool  and  flax 
and  worketh  willingly  with  her  hands.  She  is 
like  the  merchantships.  She  bringeth  her  food 
from  afar."  (Thus  she  not  only  tends  the 
cattle  and  the  fields,  for  the  sake  of  both  cloth- 
ing and  food,  but  she  goes  to  the  distant 
market. ) 

"She  riseth  also  while  it  is  yet  night  and 
giveth  meat  to  her  household,  and  a  portion  to 
her  maidens."  (Early  hours  are  quite  indis- 
pensable in  view  of  the  extent  of  her  labors.) 

"She  considereth  a  field  and  buyeth  it. 
With  the  fruit  of  her  hands  she  planteth  a  vine- 
yard." (Her  economies  are  not  only  suffi- 
cient for  the  needs  of  the  household,  but  pro- 
vide a  surplus  for  investment.) 

"She  girdeth  her  loins  with  strength  and 
strengtheneth  her  arms."  ( She  has  neither  the 
[116] 


Wages  of  the  Overman^s  Wife 

time  nor  the  need  for  the  physical  culture  or 
the  medical  aid  demanded  by  the  prosperous 
woman  of  to-day.) 

"She  perceiveth  that  her  merchandise  is 
good,  her  candle  goeth  not  out  by  night." 
(Obviously  because  of  her  addiction  to  heavy 
work,  not  light  literature.) 

*'She  layeth  her  hands  to  the  spindle  and  her 
hands  hold  the  distaff."  (Thus  finding  occu- 
pation for  the  winter  as  well  as  for  the  sum- 
mer.) 

"She  stretcheth  out  her  hands  to  the  poor, 
yea,  she  reacheth  forth  her  hands  to  the  needy." 
(Even  in  those  early  and  active  days  she  found 
leisure  for  charity.) 

"She  is  not  afraid  of  the  snow  for  her  house- 
hold, for  all  her  household  are  clothed  with 
double  garments.  She  maketh  herself  cover- 
ings of  tapestry,  her  clothing  is  silk  and  pur- 
ple." ( She  was  able  to  provide  not  only  com- 
forts for  her  family  but  luxuries  for  herself.) 

"Her  husband  is  known  in  the  gates  when 
he  sitteth  among  the  elders  of  the  land."      (All 
this  time  husband  seems  to  have  been  absent 
[117] 


'Democracy  and  the  Overman 

at  the  legislature,  representing  as  women  might 
have  thought,  in  anticipation  of  Matthew 
Arnold,  "that  power  not  ourselves  that  makes 
for  [un] righteousness.") 

"She  maketh  fine  linen  and  selleth  it  and  de- 
livereth  girdles  unto  the  merchants."  (She 
not  only  dispenses  with  the  need  of  a  husband's 
support,  but  also  has  such  excess  of  product 
that  she  can  engage  in  a  mercantile  occupation, 
which  helps  to  account  for  her  ability  to  buy 
fields  and  to  permit  her  husband  to  spend  his 
time  among  the  elders.) 

"Strength  and  honor  are  her  clothing  and 
she  shall  rejoice  in  time  to  come."  (Presum- 
ably she  did  not  have  much  time  to  rejoice 
while  engaged  in  these  various  occupations. ) 

"She  openeth  her  mouth  with  wisdom  and 
in  her  tongue  is  the  law  of  kindness.  She 
looketh  to  the  ways  of  her  household  and  eat- 
eth  not  the  bread  of  idleness."  (In  fact,  even 
from  the  masculine  point  of  view,  she  seems  in- 
dustrious.) 

"Her  children  arise  up  and  call  her  blessed. 
[118] 


Wages  of  the  Overman  s  Wife 

Her  husband  also,  and  he  praiseth  her." 
(Praise  seems  to  have  been  an  afterthought 
on  the  part  of  husband,  but  certainly  credit- 
able, considering  his  preoccupation  with  the 
statesmen. ) 

"Many  daughters  have  done  virtuously." 
(The  marginal  reading  is  "have  gotten  riches" 
which  throws  light  on  the  attitude  of  both  the 
original  author  and  the  King  James'  trans- 
lators, after  an  interval  of  twenty-five  cen- 
turies. )  "But  thou  excellest  them  all.  Favor 
is  deceitful  and  beauty  is  vain  but  the  woman 
that  feareth  the  Lord  she  shall  be  praised. 
Give  her  the  fruit  of  her  hands  and  let  her  own 
works  praise  her  in  the  gates."  (This  con- 
descending attitude  of  the  philosopher  king, 
while  characteristic  of  chivalry  in  all  ages, 
seems  not  to  have  been  followed  to  its  logical 
conclusion.  While  her  works  are  still  allowed 
to  praise  her  in  the  gates,  or  among  the  elders 
of  the  legislature;  in  lieu  of  any  voice  in  her 
own  government  they  still  refuse  to  give  her 
of  the  fruit  of  her  hands.) 
[119] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

There  has  been  skepticism  in  an  unbeheving 
generation  as  to  the  riches  of  Solomon,  and 
comparisons  to  his  disadvantage  have  been 
made  with  the  money  kings  of  to-day.  But 
the  riches  of  Solomon  are  easily  understood 
when  one  reads  this  description  of  a  virtuous 
woman  and  remembers  that  in  addition  to  three 
hundred  concubines,  he  was  said  to  have  seven 
hundred  such  virtuous  wives.  The  higher  crit- 
icism may  rob  Solomon  of  the  authorship  of 
the  Proverbs  or  the  possession  of  one  thou- 
sand wives,  but  it  cannot  dispute  the  continued 
acceptance  of  this  ideal  of  a  virtuous  woman 
of  three  thousand  years  ago.  She  is  still 
allowed  to  rejoice  in  the  fact  that  "virtue  is 
its  own  reward." 

This  hypothetical  paragon  of  Solomon 
would  have  been  an  economic  dependent, 
legally  subject  to  man,  gaining  spiritual  ends 
by  circumlocution  and  hypocrisy,  as  truly  as 
her  leisured  and  less  mythical  sisters  of  to- 
day. In  the  course  of  the  ages  it  has  become 
less  necessary  to  pursue  this  Solomonic  inquiry 
than  to  join  the  search  of  Diogenes.  Woman 
[120] 


Wages  of  the  Overman's  Wife 

has  been  emancipated  from  most  of  these  do- 
mestic obligations.  With  rehef  from  them 
there  have  come  increasing  leisure,  education, 
social  activity,  and  industrial  latitude,  but  as 
yet  no  relation  between  service  and  income. 

In  spite  of  these  advances,  which  are  almost 
exclusively  modern,  the  majority  of  women 
remain  economically  dependent.  A  woman's 
intellectual  and  social  possibilities  are  condi- 
tioned primarily  by  her  husband's  income.  The 
million  dollar  wife  married  to  the  thousand 
dollar  man  may  be  uncommon,  but  less  strik- 
ing discrepancies  to  her  disadvantage  are  usual. 
Even  the  wife  of  little  capacity  united  to  the 
man  of  wealth  is  unable  to  lead  her  normal  life 
because  she  is  usually  regarded  as  a  toy.  The 
difficulty  is  not  only  that  woman  is  dependent 
on  man,  nor  that  each  woman  is  dependent  on 
one  man,  but  all  of  a  woman's  rich  nature,  the 
sum  total  of  her  personality,  is  dependent  upon 
one  man's  income. 

Men  are  paid  a  certain  amount  of  money  for 
specified  labors.  Wives  have  no  claim  upon 
any  definite  sum ;  they  are  dependent  upon  the 
[121] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

generosity  of  husbands.  Happily  this  seems 
adequate  in  most  cases.  Indeed  it  is  quite  the 
custom  among  workingmen  to  turn  over  all 
the  family  revenue  into  the  hands  of  the  wife. 
Among  educated  people  it  is  not  uncommon 
to  determine  the  disposition  of  the  purse  be- 
forehand, that  disposition  to  remain  through 
life.  But  the  husband  is  the  treasurer,  doling 
out  the  amount  which  may  be  at  any  time  at 
his  command  or  convenience,  thereby  control- 
ling not  only  the  economic  but  the  spiritual 
life  of  his  wife. 

The  expression  of  this  subjection  which  is 
most  degrading  comes  in  the  appeal  which 
seems  to  be  increasingly  made,  or  receives  in- 
creasing publicity  in  the  United  States — the 
appeal  to  the  unwritten  law.  When  man's 
choicest  piece  of  property  is  violated,  he 
avenges  himself.  The  appeal  to  the  unwritten 
law  is  the  appeal  to  a  law  which  he  dare  not 
put  in  the  statute  books,  where  nearly  all  the 
laws  are  concerned  with  property;  where  the 
unwritten  law  is  most  often  appealed  to,  it 
is  associated  with  the  lowest  depths  of  immor- 
[122] 


Wages  of  the  Overman's  Wife 

ality.  Only  in  the  most  barbarous  parts  of  the 
United  States  would  a  jury  acquit  a  man  for 
the  murder  of  his  wife  or  her  lover,  but  any- 
where a  jealous  brute  may  in  a  fit  of  passion 
commit  murder.  It  is  never,  however,  because 
of  love  for  his  wife.  No  man  ever  kills  his 
wife  for  love.  He  may  die  for  love  or  live  for 
it;  sometimes  a  woman  kills  herself  for  it,  but 
she  does  not  want  that  kind  of  defense  from 
any  man.  Men,  with  their  property  instincts, 
have  for  the  most  part  not  yet  learned  that  the 
inviolability  of  a  woman's  personality  tran- 
scends in  ethical  importance  that  self  esteem 
which  the  overman  calls  "honor."  Even  re- 
fined men  who  love  the  objects  of  their  devo- 
tion, still  often  feel  instinctively  that  they 
would  under  provocation  take  the  law  into  their 
own  hands,  and  use  violence.  But  it  is  not  an 
attribute  of  affection  to  do  this,  it  is  the  prop- 
erty instinct  which  is  stung. 

However,  there  is  a  subtler  expression  of 
economic  mastery  in  the  men  of  to-day,  the 
grandiloquent  attitude  of  the  courtly  gentle- 
man who  says,  "Are  not  the  American  women 
[123] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

the  best,  the  most  beautiful,  the  most  versatile 
in  the  world?  Have  they  not  everything  they 
want,  and  if  there  is  anything  they  would  like 
will  we  not  give  it  to  them?"  Which  may  be 
paraphrased:  We  care  not  how  much  these 
American  queens  take  or  get,  so  long  as  they 
recognize  the  power  behind  the  throne. 

It  would  be  unfair  to  say  that  most  mar- 
riages are  deliberately  commercial,  but  most 
marriages  will  necessarily  result  in  the  depend- 
ence of  woman  until  the  equality  of  the  sexes 
is  recognized.  As  Havelock  Ellis  puts  it,  there 
is  no  hope  for  woman  as  long  as  she  is  looked 
upon  "as  a  cross  between  an  angel  and  an 
idiot."  The  age  of  chivalry  has  passed ;  woman 
is  more  respected  and  less  worshipped,  but  she 
cannot  lead  her  own  life  until  she  has  an  equal 
chance  with  man.  Even  the  main  function  of 
woman  and  the  chief  end  of  marriage,  mater- 
nity, which  makes  the  female  conservative, 
while  the  male  is  aggressive,  cannot  result 
ideally  for  offspring  or  parents,  until  the 
woman  is  granted  the  same  control  of  her  life 
as  man  enjoys.  Edward  Carpenter  says:  "No 
[124] 


I 


Wages  of  the  Overmans  Wife 

effectual  progress  is  possible  until  the  question 
of  her  capacity  for  maternity  is  fairly  faced — 
for  healthy  maternity  involving  thorough  exer- 
cise and  development  of  the  body,  a  life  more 
in  the  open  air  than  at  present — some  amount 
of  regular  manual  work,  yet  good  opportunity 
for  rest  when  needful,  knowledge  of  the  laws 
of  health  and  physiology,  widened  mental 
training  and  economic  independence." 

We  may  learn  the  wisdom  of  requiring  cau- 
tion in  assuming  the  responsibilities  of  mar- 
riage and  thus  multiply  the  examples  of  do- 
mestic bliss,  but  we  cannot  attain  justice  for 
women  and  children,  nor  the  full  benefit  of 
sex  difTerentiation,  until  women  are  given  con- 
trol of  their  incomes,  and  hence,  their  destinies. 
The  wage-earning  woman  of  to-day  is  in  a 
superior  position  to  command  just  treatment 
from  her  prospective  spouse;  and  she  brings 
to  the  marriage  state  a  greater  capacity  for 
the  management  of  the  family  income  and  a 
clearer  estimate  of  man's  worth ;  but  there  are 
still  left  the  millions  of  women  whose  capacity 
is  never  tested,  because  whatever  be  their  intel- 
[125] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

lectual,  spiritual  or  social  possibilities,  they  are 
the  recipients  of  charity.  The  charity  may  be 
disguised  by  the  love  of  a  devoted  husband, 
but  they  are  still  stunted  by  subservience  to 
a  patriarchal  administration. 

The  entrance  of  woman  into  the  actual  eco- 
nomic struggle,  while  it  must  be  granted  to 
any  individual  woman  who  chooses  it,  seems 
undesirable  for  the  race  because  of  the  value 
of  the  prolongation  of  infancy  and  the  con- 
stant availability  of  a  mother's  care.  A  system 
of  pensions  for  mothers  might  be  devised, 
which  would  recognize  their  services  to  the 
state,  and  which  in  spite  of  possible  pauperiz- 
ing effects  would  be  unquestionably  superior 
to  the  disregard  of  woman's  economic  rights. 
The  best  proposal  seems  to  have  been  made  by 
]Mr.  H.  G.  Wells  in  demanding  that  upon  mar- 
riage, and  subsequently  on  the  birth  of  each 
child,  the  father  be  required  to  take  out  an 
endowment  insurance  policy  in  the  interest  of 
wife  and  children. 

What  are  some  of  the  spiritual  consequences 
of  withholding  the  wages  of  wives?  The  great 
[120] 


Wages  of  the  Overmans  Wife 

majority  of  women  have  to  marry;  they  have 
no  alternative.  Most  of  them,  happily,  wish 
to  marry  and  many  of  them  find  appropriate 
husbands,  but  there  is  not  sufficient  opportun- 
ity for  deliberate  choice.  The  consequence  is 
that  quite  innocently,  having  been  trained  from 
infancy  to  take  the  step,  multitudes  of  women 
marry  and  live  with  men  whom  they  do  not 
love,  whom  they  sometimes  have  never  loved. 
It  is  a  hard  thought  that  this  is  legalized  pros- 
titution, and  it  need  not  carry  the  stigma  which 
is  often  unjustly  associated  with  professional 
prostitution.  There  can  scarcely  be  a  stigma 
when  the  victims  are  innocent.  The  fact  re- 
mains and  its  moral  consequences  are  unavoid- 
able. It  means  that  a  woman  has  sold  herself, 
although  her  early  training  and  conventional 
morality  may  keep  her  pure  in  mind  and  other- 
wise blameless  in  conduct.  There  is  no  escape 
from  the  distorted  view  of  life  which  this  en- 
tails. But  one  of  its  inevitable  consequences 
is  the  subjection  of  woman  to  the  physical  mas- 
tery of  man  in  ways  to  which  untutored  woman 
resigns  herself,  but  not  without  moral  an- 
[127] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

guish  which  would  be  quite  incomprehensible 
to  the  unsophisticated  husband,  who  regards 
himself  as  wholly  generous.  If  for  no  other 
reason,  legalized  remuneration  for  house-keep- 
ing, child-birth,  and  child-rearing  is  necessary, 
to  remove  the  temptation  of  a  virtuous  woman 
to  sell  herself  for  life  to  one  man.  While 
escaping  promiscuity,  women  still  relinquish 
control  over  their  own  bodies. 

Another  spiritual  result  of  economic  depend- 
ence is  even  more  conspicuous  because  ubiqui- 
tous. Woman's  chief  moral  defect  is  her 
method  of  circumlocution,  forced  upon  her  by 
being  compelled  to  make  sex  functions  eco- 
nomic functions  (as  Mrs.  Gilman  has  so  for- 
cibly stated  in  Women  and  Economics). 
Whether  it  is  during  the  courting  illusion,  or 
in  rifling  her  husband's  pockets  (which  a  sober 
American  judge  justifies) ,  or  in  accomplishing 
benefits  for  him  in  subtle  ways  beyond  his  pon- 
derous masculine  comprehension,  she  is  all  the 
time  perfecting  the  arts  of  hypocrisy.  It  is 
sutlicicntly  serious  that  woman's  character 
should  bear  this  blemisli  without  a  premium 
[128] 


Wages  of  the  Overmaiis  Wife 

being  put  upon  it  by  having  it  regarded  as  her 
chief  charm.  This  method  of  indirection  is 
becoming  increasingly  mischievous  as  the 
larger  social  opportunities  to-day  demand  for 
their  satisfactory  performance  political  activity. 
Women  being  engaged  in  innumerable  social 
labors,  made  possible  by  their  advancing  edu- 
cation and  leisure,  are  now  expected  to  perform 
many  of  these  social  obligations  in  spite  of 
the  constant  difficulty  of  social  reconstruction 
without  political  expression. 

In  this  country  this  handicap  is  due  of 
course,  in  part,  to  the  confused  conception  of 
the  state  in  the  untrained  political  minds  of  men. 
So  long  as  the  state  is  considered  a  thing  apart, 
political  action  will  be  differentiated  from 
social  action.  Aside  from  this,  woman's  social 
labors  are  doubled  by  the  expectation  that  she 
will  either  accomplish  them  by  clumsy  and 
laborious  voluntary  means,  or  persuade  man  to 
aid  her  through  his  exclusive  political  preroga- 
tives. 

The  handicap  on  fellowship  is  another  of  the 
defects  of  economic  dependence.  There  is 
[129] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

little  camaraderie  between  men  and  women, 
even  when  married.  This  is  partly  tempera- 
mental (some  people  cannot  be  confidential 
with  one  another)  but  it  is  primarily  due  to  the 
husband's  having  economic  functions  and  the 
wife  sex  functions.  The  beginnings  of  mari- 
tal unrest  are  found  chiefly  in  the  concealment 
of  a  man's  thoughts,  due  to  his  conviction  that 
the  dependent  domestic  creature  who  shares 
his  home  has  had  no  training  to  share  his  larger 
economic  experiences.  Keeping  "business" 
from  women  is  as  rational  as  keeping  father- 
hood from  men.  The  pains  of  motherhood  it 
is  true,  cannot  be  shared  by  men,  but  they  can 
exercise  the  complementary  relationship  of 
fathers.  So  women  must  be,  at  least,  domestic 
economists  and  municipal  housekeepers. 

Even  the  problems  of  sex, — the  right  of  a 
woman  to  control  her  life,  the  preparation  of 
children  for  the  revelation  of  the  mysteries  of 
life, — are  discussed  with  less  frankness  because 
of  the  instinctive  feeling  of  the  economic  mas- 
ter that  new  and  unconvential  modes  of  think- 
ing disturb  the  social  order.  The  consequences 
[130] 


Wages  of  the  Overmans  Wife 

of  economic  freedom,  of  which  every  man 
dreams,  cannot  be  less  for  woman  than  for  man. 
They  would,  in  fact,  be  of  mutual  benefit.  If 
man  can  be  brought  to  see  the  undesirability 
of  the  power  of  man  over  woman,  a  power  en- 
joyed by  the  possession  of  money,  he  may  then 
labor  to  remove  the  power  of  money  over  man ; 
"The  woman's  cause  is  man's :  they  rise  or  sink 
together,  dwarfed  or  godlike,  bond  or  free." 


[131] 


THE  OVERTAXED  CREDULITY 
OF  NEWSPAPER  READERS 


CHAP.TER   VI 

THE     OVERTAXED     CREDULITY     OF     NEWSPAPER 
READERS 

EVERY  boy  thinks  the  town  in  which  he 
is  born  and  brought  up  is  the  best  in  the 
world.  By  loyal  logic  its  people,  its  in- 
stitutions, its  newspapers,  are  "the  first."  In 
boyhood  one  does  not  analyze  his  own  emotions ; 
why  should  he  be  critical  of  the  press?  In 
later  years  it  shocks  us  to  find  that  our  faith 
in  the  newspaper  has  been  childlike  and  mis- 
placed. We  have  grown  up  tolerant  of  its 
partisanship  and  ignorant  of  its  economic  func- 
tion, but  as  our  view  of  life  becomes  clearer 
we  reluctantly  open  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that 
the  average  newspaper  regards  the  truth  with 
absolute  indifference. 

The  growth  in  size,  numbers  and  power  of 
the  daily  press  in  the  last  quarter  century  is 
.[135] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

stupendous.  Unfortunately  the  merits  and 
defects  have  grown  hand  in  hand.  The  mod- 
ern American  newspaper  is  remarkably  skilful 
in  the  presentation  of  its  printed  matter.  It 
has  a  good  conception  of  current  events.  His- 
tory in  the  making  is  recorded  with  such  accu- 
racy as  rapidity  of  production  (and  editorial 
intelligence)  will  permit.  The  newspaper  has 
been  the  first  contemporary  institution  to  grasp 
the  significance  of  graphic  methods;  pictures, 
maps,  charts,  cartoons,  are  all  used  with  great 
educational  effect  by  the  best  newspapers. 
There  is  also  a  well  developed  appreciation  of 
the  spectacular,  which  is  demanded  to  secure 
attention  in  these  strenuous  days.  In  cruder 
papers  it  may  take  the  form  of  the  exaggera- 
tion of  sensations,  but  it  is  widely  exemplified 
in  the  recognition  given  to  festivals  and  anni- 
versaries of  great  dates  and  names  of  history. 
The  activities  of  distinguished  contemporaries 
are  recorded  with  a  fulness  which  is  remarkable 
in  consideration  of  the  pressure  under  which 
papers  are  edited  and  published.  The  organ- 
ization of  the  material  in  the  best  newspapers 
[136] 


Credulity  of  Newspaper  Readers 

into  various  departments,  often  under  expert 
editorial  supervision,  is  an  increasingly  credit- 
able performance.  There  are  also  some  great 
special  issues,  such  as  the  Saturday  numbers 
of  the  New  York  Evening  Post  and  the  Bos- 
ton Transcript,  the  New  York  Times  Saturday 
Supplement,  and  the  New  Year's  editions  of 
the  Chicago  Tribune  and  Los  Angeles  Times. 
The  newspapers  are  big  with  matter,  but, 
after  the  fashion  of  the  fabled  mountain,  they 
bring  forth  periodically  an  insignificant  amount 
of  trustworthy  information.  The  volume  of 
print  needed  to  balance  the  increasing  amount 
of  advertising  is  so  great  that,  together  with 
the  speed  of  production,  little  discrimination 
is  exercised  in  the  choice  of  news.  Editors  are 
not  alone  in  this  slovenly  practice.  The  Amer- 
ican people  are  suffering  from  journalitis. 
The  slate  is  wiped  off  and  life  begins  anew 
every  twenty-four  hours.  The  reasoning  fac- 
ulties are  precariously  employed  by  the  day; 
they  have  no  permanent  occupation.  Instead 
of  taking  no  thought  for  the  morrow,  we  take 
thought  only  for  the  morrow.  We  do  not  take 
[137] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

time  to  think  through  subjects,  but  dismiss  our 
half-baked  thought  to  make  way  for  new  im- 
pressions. The  pressure  of  business  Hfe  keeps 
us  keyed  up  to  a  tension  to  which  the  news- 
papers are  expected  to  respond.  The  news- 
papers must  be  dated  hours  ahead  to  satisfy  our 
thirst  for  the  new,  which  is  not  necessarily  the 
true  thing.  The  difficulty  is  not  merely  that 
they  stimulate  superficial  thought;  we  demand 
it.  It  is  not  possible  to  think  clearly  when  we 
are  in  such  a  hurry.  The  newspaper  cannot 
be  accurate  while  it  is  printed  so  hastily;  the 
Damocles  sword  hanging  constantly  over  the 
head  of  the  newspaper  man  is  the  fear  of  a 
scoop;  but  there  are  unfortunately  additional 
reasons  why  it  does  not  try  to  be  accurate. 

The  newspaper  is  a  business  institution,  not 
an  organ  of  education,  and  it  must  be  made  to 
pay,  whether  the  public  taste  and  morals  are 
debauched  or  not.  One  serious  aspect  of  the 
capitalistic  press  is  the  presence  of  sweat-shop 
methods  in  the  management  of  tlie  plant.  The 
staff  of  the  newspaper  are  paid  relatively  less 
[138] 


Credulity  of  Newspaper  Readers 

for  the  amount  of  intelligence  they  are  sup- 
posed to  display  than  any  other  class,  with  the 
possible  exception  of  teachers.  Even  the 
clergy  are  better  paid  on  the  average  than 
newspaper  men.  The  sweat-shop  methods  ex- 
tend to  the  subordination  of  the  individuality 
of  the  employee.  Personality  is  a  handicap, 
even  the  nom  de  plume  is  passe;  the  mark  of 
the  newspaper  man  is  anonymity.  Few  news- 
paper men  are  free;  there  is  more  freedom  in 
the  pulpit  and  the  college  professor's  chair 
than  in  the  editorial  sanctum.  This  also  is  be- 
cause newspaper  publication  is  a  business, — a 
badly  organized  business, — representative  of 
the  incomplete  organization  of  the  business 
world  today. 

The  influence  of  "the  trust"  (the  Associated 
Press)  limits  the  number  of  papers  which  can 
receive  promptly  the  news  of  the  world,  while 
poor  business  methods  result  in  the  accidental 
multiplication  of  papers  without  regard  to  the 
needs  of  the  community,  so,  that,  for  example, 
Pittsburgh  has  more  papers  than  Chicago, 
[139] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

with  the  natural  result  that  Pittsburgh  has 
neither  morning  nor  evening  paper  of  influ- 
ence or  character. 

Newspapers,  although  primarily  business 
enterprises,  are  subject  to  minor  influences 
and  may  be  classified  into  personal,  party,  and 
corporation  organs.  This  classification  is  not 
precise,  as  a  paper  may  belong  in  two  or  even 
three  classes,  but  the  individuality  of  the  paper 
is  determined  by  the  influence  of  a  personality, 
a  party,  or  a  corporation.  Even  when  a  news- 
paper is  intensely  partisan  or  capitalistic,  it 
may  have  a  quality  beyond  that  of  other 
papers  because  of  the  dominance  of  a  strong 
personality.  Such  personal  papers,  still  sur- 
viving in  this  impersonal  business  age,  are  the 
Springfield  Republican,  the  Brooklyn  Eagle, 
the  New  York  Evening  Post,  the  Cincinnati 
Enquirer,  the  Louisville  Courier- Journal,  the 
Kansas  City  Star  and  the  Los  Angeles  Times. 
The  reputability  of  these  papers  varies  from 
the  best  in  America  to  the  worst,  but  each  one 
has  a  strength  due  to  the  personality  of  its 
editor. 

[140] 


Credulity  of  Newspaper  Readers 

Except  in  the  case  of  some  rare  independent 
papers,  which  are  so  in  fact  and  not  merely 
in  name,  most  of  the  newspapers  of  the  coun- 
try are  painfully  partisan.  This  in  all  cases 
vitiates  their  influence.  It  is  not  even  ex- 
pected that  papers  shall  tell  the  truth  during  a 
political  campaign,  or  at  any  other  time  re- 
garding their  political  opponents.  While 
nearly  all  papers  are  subject  to  the  advertiser, 
and  especially  truckle  to  the  overman,  there 
are  many  which  are  organs  of  the  corporations 
and  never,  except  through  the  accidental  blun- 
dering of  a  reporter,  attempt  to  tell  the  truth 
about  these  corporations  and  their  allied  in- 
terests. 

Much  of  the  condemnation  which  must  be 
visited  upon  party  and  corporation  bias  is  due 
to  the  unconscious  predilections  of  the  person- 
ality dominating  the  paper.  What  the  radical 
papers  call  "the  capitalistic  press"  may  be  ex- 
plained on  this  basis.  The  owners,  and  even 
the  editors,  by  social  affiliation  with  capitahstic 
interests,  are  naturally  and  sincerely  sympa- 
thetic with  the  interests  of  capital,  right  or 
[141] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

wrong.  This  extends  to  the  coloring  and  even 
suppression  of  news  by  the  Associated  Press. 
Such  instinctive  sympathies  do  not  account, 
however,  for  the  pusillanimity  of  the  New 
York  papers  in  their  relations  to  the  theater 
trust,  which  Life  so  vigorously  exposed,  or  the 
dastardly  tiniculence  to  advertisers  which  Col- 
lier's is  fighting,  or  the  unscrupulous  mendac- 
ity of  corporation  papers.  On  the  other  hand, 
too  much  notice  must  not  be  accorded  the  press 
for  its  well  nigh  unanimous  opposition  to  a 
high  tariff  bill,  regardless  of  party,  when  the 
enthusiasm  for  free  wood  pulp  is  remembered. 
It  is  legitimate  for  personal,  party,  or  cor- 
poration organs  to  defend  their  interests,  pro- 
vided it  is  done  in  the  open,  but  the  practice 
of  distorting  facts  on  behalf  of  these  interests 
induces  habitual  lying.  We  have  been  hear- 
ing a  great  deal  lately  about  Ananias,  but  his 
notoriety  is  generally  misunderstood.  He  was 
not  a  good  liar;  a  good  liar  lies  with  discrim- 
ination and  effect.  Lying  was  a  secondary 
thought  with  Ananias.  His  offense  consisted 
in  \\ithholding  something  unjustly,  and  then 
[142] 


Credulity  of  Newspaper  Readers 

lying  about  it.  This  is  the  situation  in  which 
the  newspapers  find  themselves.  This  is  why 
the  newspapers  habitually  misrepresent. 
There  is  something  to  withhold  from  the  pub- 
lic; dust  must  be  thrown  in  their  eyes,  and 
lying  becomes  a  habit.  One  can  understand 
the  San  Francisco  papers'  lying  about  the 
bubonic  plague  or  their  street  railway  presi- 
dent, or  the  Chicago  papers'  reticence  about 
the  mayor  or  chief  of  police,  but  the  habit  ex- 
tends to  subjects  where  it  can  be  of  no  object, 
and  worse  still,  to  the  reckless  defamation  of 
character. 

Statements  which  cannot  have  any  possible 
basis  in  fact  are  copied  by  the  papers  through- 
out the  country,  even  though  the  exaggera- 
tions be  so  great  as  to  frustrate  the  inten- 
tion which  originally  prompted  the  statement. 
Editors,  in  their  eagerness  for  news,  lose  the 
capacity  to  identify  the  truth.  Bryan's  al- 
leged play  and  histrionic  ambitions  were  re- 
ported in  all  seriousness  by  a  truth-blind  press. 
The  New  Orleans  papers  guilelessly  made 
asses  of  all  the  members  of  the  Chamber  of 
[143] 


Dernocracif  and  the  Overman 

Commerce  by  taking  seriously  the  report  that 
"Dixie"  was  to  be  tabu  in  a  Chicago  patri- 
otic festival,  a  canard  telegraphed  all  over  the 
country.  The  Chicago  Inter-Ocean  printed 
a  series  of  definitions  of  socialism  which  it 
boldly  attributed  to  Governor  Folk.  As  it 
did  not  credit  the  item  to  any  other  paper,  it 
must  be  held  responsible  for  as  foolish  an  ag- 
gregation of  statements  as  has  appeared  in 
print.  No  one  will  be  surprised  that  Gov- 
ernor Folk  denied  the  authorship  of  the  fol- 
lowing: 

FOLK  DEFINES  A  SOCIALIST 

Governor  Folk  of  Missouri  at  one  of  his  Chautauqua 
addresses  recently  was  requested  by  an  inquisitor  to  de- 
fine a  "Socialist."  "That  is  easy,"  replied  the  Governor. 
"But  half  a  dozen  definitions  are  more  expressive  than 
one: 

"A  Socialist  is  the  one  who  loses  in  the  competitive 
race  for  luxurious  existence. 

"A  Socialist  is  the  dreamer  among  practical  men. 

"A  Socialist  is  the  man  unable  to  rise  to  his  selected 
ambition  and  as  a  result  determines  to  destroy  it. 

"A  Socialist,  generally  speaking,  is  an  antitheist  al- 
^vays  willing  to  embrace  the  ignorant  foreigner,  for  in 
[144] 


Credulity  of  Newspaper  Readers 

the  foreigner  only  can  he  instill  the  Czolgosz-Averbuch 
ideals. 

"A  Socialist,  to  be  brief,  is  simply  the  unmentionable, 
the  unpermittable,  and  the  impossible." 

Quite  a  little  amusement  was  created  by  the 
New  York  Times'  publication  of  the  so-called 
Cleveland  article,  supporting  Taft  in  the  1908 
campaign.  'No  ordinarily  intelligent  person 
thought  for  a  moment  that  Cleveland  had 
written  it,  but  the  paper  which  prints  "all  the 
news  that's  fit  to  print,"  was  undoubtedly  sin- 
cere in  its  acceptance  of  the  authorship,  as 
were  a  great  many  thoughtless  people  and 
papers.  The  inspired  columns  sent  out  daily 
from  Washington  by  the  party  in  power  are 
puerile  in  their  ingenuousness.  One  wonders 
whether  there  are  people  allowed  to  be  at  large 
who  can  be  deceived  by  these  reports.  Yet  it 
was  thought  necessary  to  issue  a  denial  of  the 
dispatches  which  announced  Roosevelt's  en- 
dorsement of  Taft,  although  an  intelligent 
reading  of  the  originals  found  this  support 
only  in  the  headlines.  The  text  showed  that 
letters  received  by  the  administration  leaders 
[145] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

contained  no  specific  criticism  of  the  President 
by  the  ex-President,  a  praise  so  damning  it 
would  seem  desirable  to  suppress  rather  than 
circulate  it,  were  the  papers  less  naive. 

The  subordination  of  the  newspaperman's 
mind  to  his  employer  accounts  for  his  dread  of 
originality.  Mr.  Will  Irwin  makes  the  awful 
confession  that  the  New  York  Sun  is  the 
newspaperman's  newspaper.  The  Sun  is 
often  clever,  sometimes  brilliant,  always  flip- 
pant, seldom  sincere,  and,  in  this  generation, 
never  original.  It  is  sui  generis,  but  it  has 
a  method  which  precludes  new  talent's  ex- 
pressing anything  really  virile.  Yet  it  is  the 
acknowledged  guide  of  the  ambitious  news- 
paper man!  The  newspaper  world  worships 
the  god  of  things  as  they  were.  It  is  eager 
to  give  us  the  latest  news  about  things  as  they 
are  said  to  be,  even  to  manufacturing  it,  but 
it  has  an  extreme  repugnance  to  serious  dis- 
cussion of  things  as  they  ought  to  be.  Any- 
thing the  newspaper  cannot  understand  must 
be  folly.  From  the  point  of  view  of  conven- 
tional newspaperdom  any  suggestion  of  eco- 
[146] 


Credulity  of  Newspaper  Readers 

nomic  reform  is  "socialism,"  fundamental  po- 
litical reforms  are  "anarchism;"  any  proposal 
for  the  reform  of  domestic  relations  is  "free 
love;"  religious  reform  is  "atheism;"  educa- 
tional reform  is  "a  fad;"  moral  reform  is  "pes- 
simism." 

The  result  of  this  attitude  is  the  hypocritical 
maintenance  of  a  negative,  colorless,  bourgeois 
morality. 

Any  discussion  of  the  sex  question,  not  con- 
tained in  the  shorter  catechism,  is  a  "sacred 
cow,"  the  newspaper  editor's  pet  superstition.. 
The  daily  newspapers  reviled  Gorky  without 
knowing  anything  about  him,  although  the 
reputable  weeklies  defended  him.  Perhaps  it 
was  this  excessive  virtue  that  concealed  the 
relation  between  protected  brothels  and  the 
police  in  New  York  and  Chicago  until  the 
socialistic  press  revealed  what  the  capitalistic 
papers  had  refused  to  print.  A  press  notice 
said  of  a  social  purity  congress,  attended  by 
the  sternest  friends  of  sex  morality,  that  its 
discussions  were  not  fit  for  publication. 
These  pious  ejaculations  will  be  found  in  the 
[147] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

same  issue  with  page  after  page  of  obscenity 
and  scurrility.  The  same  attitude  prevails 
toward  anything  fundamental  that  is  not  part 
of  current  gossip,  which  accounts  for  the 
ignorance  of  sociology  and  theology. 

The  Biblical  World,  in  its  October  (1909) 
number,  took  the  ground  that  the  "ethical 
questions  of  today  can  not  be  decided  solely 
by  appeal  to  the  Bible  regarded  as  a  compen- 
dium of  ethics,  but  must  be  met  on  the  one 
hand  by  a  historical  study  of  the  Bible,  and 
on  the  other  by  a  similar  study  of  present  day 
conditions."  It  reported  the  result  in  a  sub- 
sequent number:  "The  ink  was  scarcely  dry 
on  our  pages  before  there  appeared  in  the  daily 
press  reports  of  this  article  under  such  head- 
ings as  the  following:  'Warns  Church 
against  Bible  as  Moral  Guide';  'Calls  Bible 
useful  only  as  History/  'Bible  not  Ethical, 
Thirteen  Professors  Say,'  (there  being  thir- 
teen names  in  our  list  of  editors) ;  'Attacks 
Ethics  of  Bible — Says  it  Ignores  Vital  Issues 
— Polygamy,  Wine  Feasts,  and  Vengeance 
are  Given  Biblical  Sanction,  He  Says.'  Dis- 
[148] 


Credulity  of  Newspaper  Readers 

tance  and  telegraphic  transmission  but  in- 
creased the  distortions.  'Bible  Ethics  Bad; 
Chicago  University  Publication  has  Startling 
Editorial.  Frank  Higher  Criticism';  'Bible 
Morals  condemned;  University  Magazine  Says 
it  Teaches  Bad  Conduct';  'Sensational  Attack 
on  Bible  Stirs  University/  were  some  of  the 
headlines  under  which  the  news  was  spread 
abroad." 

The  failure  to  balance  nicely  the  merits  of 
questions  in  the  interest  of  truth  leads  to  de- 
nunciation of  original  or  novel  propositions, 
instead  of  refutation.  The  average  news- 
paper is  more  gifted  in  epithets  than  argu- 
ments. So  rare  is  unflinching  devotion  to 
facts  that  when  a  paper  starts  out  to  be  excep- 
tionally clean  and  truthful  it  may  lean  over 
backwards,  as  the  Christian  Science  Monitor 
does.  While  this  attempts  to  be  the  most 
genuine  daily  paper  published  in  Boston  now, 
it  does  deliberately,  in  the  interest  of  the  faith 
it  represents,  suppress  news  of  deaths  and  acci- 
dents. 

An  attempt  might  be  made  to  estimate  the 
[149] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

extent  of  fearless  devotion  to  the  truth  pre- 
sented by  the  daily  press.  The  majority  of 
newspapers  are  of  local  influence  only  and  al- 
though immensely  important  collectively,  not 
only  do  not  directly  affect  national  life,  but 
are  too  numerous  and  commonplace  to  permit 
any  individual  to  risk  a  comparative  state- 
ment. Even  in  the  first-class  cities  (popula- 
tion over  100,000)  most  of  the  papers  are  in- 
consequential and  their  general  influence  must 
be  measured  by  typical  instances,  the  selection 
being  made  on  the  basis  of  the  conspicuous 
merit  or  defect  of  a  paper.  Some  excellent 
papers  will  not  be  mentioned  because  they  ap- 
pear in  small  cities,  other  well  known  papers 
may  be  omitted  because  they  lack  distinctive 
qualities.  If  any  papers  seem  invidiously 
characterized,  they  at  least  receive  the  tribute 
of  acknowledged  importance.  Employing 
descriptive  terms,  suggested  by  the  popular 
use  of  "yellow,"  the  spectrum  of  typical  daily 
papers  of  the  United  States,  passed  through 
the  prism  of  truth,  may  be  said  to  emerge  as 
follows : 

[150] 


Credulity  of  Newspaper  Readers 

WHITE  (clear  and  clean) 

Springfield  Republican 

Kansas  City  Star 
GRAY  (when  in  doubt,  tell  the  truth) 

Portland  Oregonian 

Indianapolis  News 

New  York  Times 
COLORLESS  (anaemic) 

Philadelphia  Public  Ledger 

Chicago  Evening  Post 
YELLOW  (lemon,  touched  with  gold) 

Hearst's  papers 

New  York  World 

Chicago  Tribune 
GREEN  (never  set  anything  on  fire) 

St.  Louis,  Pittsburgh,  Cleveland,  Buffalo, 
San     Francisco,     Detroit,     Washington, 
Twin-City  papers. 
INDIGO  (blue-stocking  temperament) 

New  York  Evening  Post 

Boston  Transcript 
"A  DASH  OF  VIOLET" 

Louisville  Courier- Journal 
RED  (inflamed,  not  luminous) 

New  York  Sun 
BLACK  (but  not  opaque) 

Los  Angeles  Times 

Cincinnati  Enquirer 

[151] 


^Democracy  and  the  Overman 

These  typical  instances  represent  every; 
range  of  devotion  to  the  truth  from  the  seri- 
ous endeavor  to  tell  the  truth  all  the  time  to 
the  utterly  unscrupulous  disregard  of  truth  all 
the  time. 

Democracy  has  an  uphill  fight  in  America 
at  present,  since  untrammeled  organs  of 
free  speech  are  generally  vranting.  News- 
papers continue  to  be  patronized  and  be- 
lieved because  they  reflect  the  methods 
which  temporarily  bring  what  is  called  suc- 
cess. They  meet  the  needs  of  the  over- 
man and  the  overman's  friends,  while  they 
lack  intelligent  criticism  from  the  public  which 
is  being  gulled.  They  are  cunning,  but  not 
clever;  detailed,  but  not  exact;  prudish,  but 
not  refined;  partisan,  but  not  patriotic;  flip- 
pant, but  not  humorous;  persistent,  but  not 
vigilant;  captious,  but  not  critical;  blase,  but 
not  sophisticated;  sensitive,  but  not  honorable; 
conventional,  but  not  ethical ;  emphatic,  but  not 
true. 

Yet  the  constant  courage  of  a  few  daily 
papers,  the  fearless  devotion  to  the  truth  of 
[152] 


Credulity  of  Newspaper  Readers 

some  monthly  magazines,  and  the  multiplica- 
tion of  sterling,  vigorous  weeklies  keep  alive 
the  hope  that  as  the  public  grows  more  deserv- 
ing and  exacting,  public  utilities  come  under 
public  control,  publicity  is  demanded  of  busi- 
ness, and  libel  laws  are  made  more  rigorous,  the 
daily  papers  will  yet  be  the  medium  for  achiev- 
ing the  ideal,  "Ye  shall  know  the  truth  and 
the  truth  shall  make  you  free." 


[153] 


THE  OVERWORKED 
POLITICAL  PLATITUDES 


CHAPTER  yil 


THE  OVERWORKED  POLITICAL  PLATITUDES  ^ 


THE  people  are  beginning  to  see,  through 
the  dust  of  party  strife,  that  the  art 
and  science  of  government  are  concealed 
by  party  labels  and  watchwords.  Not  many 
know  that  "Republican"  and  "Democrat"  are 
synonymous  with  tweedle-dum  and  tweedle- 
dee,  but  more  are  demanding  that  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  common  life  be  no  longer  ob- 
scured by  the  ambiguity  of  platforms  and 
the  personality  of  candidates. 

Yet  the  clever  politician  continues  to  side- 
track the  patriotic  citizen. 

The  encouragement  which  has  come  most 
recently  from  the  rebuke  of  political  rings  by 
men  whose  nomination  had  been  demanded  by 


1  Published  in  the  New  York  Sunday  Times,  October  4,  1908. 

[157] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

the  people,  as  was  the  case  in  the  choice  of  both 
Taft  and  Bryan,  is  marred  by  the  surrender 
to  the  ring  in  the  choice  of  vice-presidential 
candidates  and  platform  planks.  Party 
shibboleths  continue  to  mislead;  party  loyalty 
injures  patriotism;  hysterical  citizens  see  in 
the  opposing  candidates  only  demon  and 
demigod,  but  more  nearly  than  ever  before 
there  emerges  from  the  smoke  of  conflict  a 
vision  of  the  meaning  of  a  government  of  the 
people,  by  the  people  and  for  the  people.  It  is 
not  presented  consciously  by  either  candidate, 
it  is  only  casually  indicated  in  those  principles 
which  each  party  considers  paramount,  but  it 
is  better  defined. 

Observation  of  the  party  conventions  reveals 
a  people  in  their  quadrennial  spectacle  of  re- 
ceiving uncomplainingly  a  stone  when  they 
have  rather  incoherently  asked  for  bread. 

A  study  of  the  platforms  does  not  betray 
any  striking  issue  between  the  parties.  We 
look  in  vain  for  any  adequate  treatment  of  the 
most  vital  interests  of  the  masses  of  the  people ; 
the  few  principles  which  are  peculiar  to  either 
[158] 


Overworked  Political  Platitudes 


party  seem  insipid  by  contrast  with  the  really 
insistent  needs  of  the  multitude. 

Both  parties  miraculously  discover  the  ex- 
istence of  natural  resources  on  the  continent, 
in  the  year  of  Our  Lord,  1908. 


Democratic  Platform 

"We  urge  the  irrigation  of 
arid  lands,  the  reclamation  of 
swamp  lands,  the  clarification 
of  streams,  the  development 
of  water  power,  and  the 
preservation  of  electric  power 
generated  by  this  natural 
force  from  the  control  of 
monopoly,  and,  to  such  end, 
we  urge  the  exercise  of  all 
powers,  national,  state,  and 
municipal,  both  separately 
and  in  co-operation,  also  the 
plan  for  improving  every 
water  course  in  the  union, 
which  is  justified  by  the 
needs  of  commerce;  and  to 
secure  that  end,  we  favor, 
when  practicable  (sic!)  the 
connection  of  the  Great 
Lakes  with  the  navigable 
rivers  and  with  the  gulf 
through  the  Mississippi  river, 
and  the  navigable  rivers  with 
each  other." 

[159] 


Republican  Platform 

"We  indorse  the  movement 
inaugurated  by  the  adminis- 
tration for  the  conservation 
of  natural  resources;  we  ap- 
prove all  measures  to  prevent 
the  waste  of  timber;  we  com- 
mend the  work  now  going  on 
for  the  reclamation  of  arid 
lands,  and  reaffirm  the  Re- 
publican policy  of  the  free 
distribution  of  the  available 
areas  of  the  public  domain 
to  the  landless  settler." 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

By   a   remarkable    coincidence    the   toiling 
masses  are  to  be  relieved  by 


EMPLOYERS'  LIABILITY 


"We  pledge  the  Democratic 
party  to  the  enactment  of  a 
law  by  Congress,  as  far  as 
the  federal  jurisdiction  ex- 
tends, for  a  general  employ- 
ers' liability  act,  covering  in- 
jury to  body  or  loss  of  life 
of  employees." 


"The  enactment  in  consti- 
tutional form  at  the  present 
session  of  Congress  of  the 
employers'  liability  law;  the 
passage  and  enforcement  of 
the  safety  appliance  statutes, 
as  well  as  the  additional  pro- 
tection secured  for  engineers 
and  firemen;  the  reduction  in 
the  hours  of  labor  of  train- 
men and  railroad  telegra- 
phers; the  successful  exercise 
of  the  powers  of  mediation 
and  arbitration  between  in- 
terstate railroads  and  their 
employees,  and  the  law  mak- 
ing a  beginning  in  the  policy 
of  compensation  for  injured 
employees  of  the  government 
are  among  the  most  commen- 
dable accomplishments." 

Having  found  that  the  real  rulers  of  the 
nation  are  not  engaged  in  predatory  occupa- 
tions for  their  health,  it  is  deemed  expedient  to 
advocate 

[160] 


Overn:orhed  Political  Platitudes 


HEALTH  REFORMS 


"We  advocate  the  organi- 
zation of  all  existing  public 
health  agencies  into  a  na- 
tional bureau  of  public  health, 
with  such  power  over  sanitary 
conditions  connected  with  fac- 
tories, mines,  tenements,  child 
labor  and  other  such  subjects 
as  are  properly  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  federal 
government." 


"  We  commend  the  efforts 
designed  to  secure  greater 
efficiency  in  national  public 
health  agencies  and  favor 
such  legislation  as  wiU  effect 
this  purpose." 


The    free   trade    and   paternalistic   parties 
unite  again  on  the 


TARIFF 


"We  welcome  the  belated 
promise  of  tariff  reform  now 
affected  by  the  Republican 
party  in  tardy  recognition  of 
the  righteousness  of  the  Demo- 
cratic position  on  this  ques- 
tion; but  the  people  cannot 
safely  entrust  the  execution 
of  this  important  work  to  a 
party  which  is  so  deeply  ob- 
ligated to  the  highly  pro- 
tected interests  as  is  the  Re- 
publican party.  We  call  at- 
tention to  the  significant  fact 


"We  favor  the  establish- 
ment of  maximum  and  mini- 
mum rates  to  be  administered 
by  the  President  imder  limi- 
tations fixed  in  the  law,  the 
maximum  to  be  available  to 
meet  discrimination  by  for- 
eign coxmtries." 


[161] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

that  the  promised  relief  was 
postponed  until  after  the  com- 
ing election — an  election  to 
succeed  in  which  the  Repub- 
lican party  must  have  that 
same  high  protective  tariff  as 
it  has  always  heretofore  re- 
ceived from  them;  and  to  the 
further  fact  that  during  years 
of  iminterrupted  power,  no 
action  whatever  has  been 
taken  by  the  Republican  con- 
gress to  correct  the  admitted- 
ly  existing   tariff   iniquities." 

Neither  party  holding  any  intelligent  or 
courageous  views  on  banking,  they  tentatively 
compromise  on 

THE  POSTAL  SAVINGS  BANK 

"We    pledge    ourselves     to         "We    favor    the    establish- 
legislation    under    which    the      ment  of  a  postal  savings  bank 
national    banks    shall    be    re-      system  for  the  convenience  of 
quired  to  establish  a  guaran-      the  people  and  the  encourage- 
tee  fund  for  the  prompt  pay-      ment  of  thrift." 
ment  of  the  depositors  of  any 
insolvent  national  bank  under 
an     equitable     system     which 
shall  be  available  to  all  state 
banking    institutions    wishing 
to  use  it.    We   favor   a   pes- 

[162] 


Overworked  Political  Platitudes 

tal  savings  bank  if  the  guar- 
anteed bank  cannot  be  se- 
cured and  that  it  be  consti- 
tuted so  as  to  keep  the  de- 
posited money  in  the  com- 
munities where  it  is  estab- 
lished. But  we  condemn  the 
policy  of  the  Republican 
party  in  proposing  postal 
savings  banks  under  a  plan 
of  conduct  by  which  those 
will  aggregate  the  deposits  of 
the  same,  while  imder  gov- 
ernment charge,  in  the  banks  * 
of  Wall  street." 

The  simple  minded  Jeffersonian  democrats 
vie  with  the  party  of  the  "  big  stick  "  in  advo- 
cating an  extravagant  and  demoralizing 

NAVY 

"The      constitutional      pro-  "Although  at  peace  with  all 

vision   that   a   navy    shall    be  the   world  and  secure  in  the 

provided       and       maintained  consciousness  that  the  Amer- 

means  an  adequate  navy,  and  lean  people  do  not  desire  and 

we  believe  that  the  interests  will  not  provoke  war  with  any 

of  this  country  would  be  best  other  country,  we  nevertheless 

served  by  having  a  navy  sufB-  declare    our    unalterable    de- 

cient  to  defend  the  coasts  of  votion   to   a   policy   that   will 

this      country      and      protect  keep    this    republic    ready    at 

American     citizens     wherever  all   times   to  defend  her  tra- 


[163] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 


their      rights      may      be      in       ditional   doctrines   and   assure 
jeopardy."  her  appropriate   part   in   pro- 

moting permanent  tranquillity 
among  the  nations." 

This  will  be  especially  useful  for  the 

PROTECTION  OF  CITIZENS 

engaged  in  questionable  occupations  in  Vene- 
zuela and  other  little  countries. 


"We  pledge  our  services  to  "We 

insist  upon  the  just  and  law-  efforts 

ful  protection  of  our  citizens  tration 

at   home   and   abroad,   and   to  citizens 

use  all  proper  methods  to  se-  pledge 

cure      protection      for     them,  on    the 

whether   native   born   or   nat-  tection 
uralized." 


commend  the  vigorous 
made  by  the  adminis- 
to  protect  American 
in  foreign  lands  and 
ourselves  to  insist  up- 
just  and  equal  pro- 
of all  our  citizens." 


The  parties  having  surrendered  their  con- 
ventions to  notorious  spoilsmen,  perjure  them- 
selves by  professing  devotion  to 


CIVIL  SERVICE 


"The  laws  pertaining  to 
the  civil  service  should  be 
honestly  and  rigidly  enforced, 
to  the  end  that  merit  and 
ability  shall   be  the   standard 


"We  affirm  our  declaration 
that  the  civil  service  laws 
enacted,  extended,  and  en- 
forced by  the  Republican 
party    shall    continue    to    be 


of    api^ointment    and    promo-      maintained    and    obeyed." 

[164] 


Ovei'tcorked  Political  Platitudes 

tion  ratlier  than  services  ren- 
dered to  a  political  party." 

The  prospect  of  grateful  support  in  the 
Senate  and  the  House  prompts  each  party  to 
extend  a  welcoming  hand  to 

NEW  MEXICO  AND  ARIZONA 

"  The    national    Democratic  "We    favor    the    immediate 

party  has  for  the  last  sixteen       admission  of  the  territories  of 
years  labored   for  the  admis-       New  Mexico  and   Arizona  as 
sion    of    Arizona    and     New      separate  States  of  the  Union." 
Mexico  as   separate  states  of 
the  federal  union,  and  recog- 
nizing    that     each     possesses 
every  qualification  to  success- 
fully maintain   separate  state 
government  we  favor  the  im- 
mediate    admission    of    these 
territories  as  separate  states." 

The  RepubHcan  platform  is  actually  dis- 
tinguished from  its  rival's  by  some  famiHar 
platitudes,  the  absence  of  which  would  reflect 
discredit  on  the  Democrats,  were  tiie  Republi- 
can professions  sincere.  A  bureau  of  mines, 
the  enforcement  of  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  (sic!)  amendments  to  the  Con- 
[165] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

stitution  and  generosity  to  the  old  soldier  are 
among  others.  Is  there  no  positive  message 
from  either  camp?  Is  no  larger  life  to  emerge 
from  our  great  industrial  civilization? 

Industrial  evolution  proceeding  by  giant 
strides  cannot  wait  for  party  platforms.  The 
Constitution  is  stretched  beyond  the  dreams  of 
the  fathers  to  meet  economic  needs  which  could 
not  have  been  known  to  them,  while  the  ma- 
jority of  the  people  still  take  the  appearance 
for  the  substance.  A  brief  resume  of  the 
fundamentals  of  American  government  is 
necessary  to  see  how  empty  are  the  phrases 
hurled  by  Mr.  Taft  and  ^Ir.  Bryan  at  each 
other,  without  edification  or  entertainment  of 
the  apathetic  public,  giving  Mr.  Hearst  the 
monopoly  of  picturesqueness. 

The  American  system  of  government  pro- 
vides for  an  executive  organization  consisting 
of  President,  Vice-President  and  Cabinet, 
without  voice,  presence  or  any  other  than  in- 
direct influence  in  the  shaping  of  legislation, 
except  by  presidential  veto.  In  fact  the  sepa- 
ration of  the  executive  from  the  legislative  is 
[166] 


Overworked  Political  Platitudes 

the  cardinal  principle  of  American  govern- 
ment and  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  its  inef- 
ficiency. To  exert  an  influence  which  will  in- 
itiate policies,  the  president  must  employ  the 
familiar  feminine  method  of  circumlocution, 
imposed  upon  woman  by  the  denial  of  her 
rights,  and  the  consequent  development  of  her 
skill  in  hypocrisy.  The  President  must 
wheedle  and  cajole,  pull  and  push  to  secure 
progress,  and  the  type  of  man  who  can  win 
the  office  seldom  cares  for  progress. 

The  Cabinet  officers  may,  without  disrespect, 
be  characterized  in  the  language  of  the  street 
as  the  president's  "push."  Their  executive 
functions  in  the  service  of  the  people  are  quite 
secondary  to  their  importance  in  the  strength- 
ening of  the  part}^  It  is  unusual  for  a  mem- 
ber of  the  cabinet  to  exhibit  any  evidence  of 
improvement  in  his  department,  and  on  such 
rare  occasions  he  is  usually  met  with  unsparing 
condemnation  by  his  party,  as  when  Mr.  John 
Wanamaker  gave  the  only  good  administra- 
tion of  the  Post-Office  Department  in  this 
generation.  *'It  is  not  so  nominated  in  the 
[167] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

bond,"  but  it  has  become  the  function  of  the 
cabinet  to  shine  in  the  society  of  the  capital  and 
serve  as  pawns  for  the  pohtical  moves  in  the 
affairs  of  the  party. 

The  Vice-President  is  the  negative  pole  in 
the  executive  battery.  His  main  function  is  to 
secure  the  election  of  the  President  by  exert- 
ing influence  in  a  doubtful  state.  In  spite  of 
being  the  only  executive  who  sits  in  a  legis- 
lative body,  which  might  be  supposed  to  give 
him  almost  the  position  of  a  prime  minister, 
he  is  not  supposed  to  have  a  personality  or 
opinions :  in  fact,  these  are  usually  sufficient  to 
preclude  nomination.  When  a  party  is  forced 
into  the  unfortunate  position  of  being  com- 
pelled to  nominate  a  live  man  for  the  vice-presi- 
dency, it  is  regarded  as  so  serious  a  calamity 
that  both  parties  unite  in  a  zealous  endeavor 
to  prevent  its  repetition.  The  nomination  of 
Roosevelt  to  this  office  was  a  blunder  from 
which  the  old  Republican  party  will  never  re- 
cover, and  for  which  it  is  now  paying  the  pen- 
alty of  disaffection  and  discord.  So  far  from 
encouraging  the  opposition  party,  this  revolu- 
[168] 


Overworked  Political  Platitudes 

tion  in  American  politics  was  emphasized  and 
rebuked  by  the  choice  in  the  succeeding  cam- 
paign of  a  senile  superannuate  by  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  and  not  to  be  outdone,  the  Re- 
publican party,  moved  by  similar  monetary 
influence,  chose  the  mollycoddle  of  buttermilk 
fame.  The  precedents  having  been  re- 
established it  is  natural  that,  though  popular 
clamor  and  presidential  pressure  had  been 
satisfied  in  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Taft,  a  can- 
didate more  to  the  liking  of  Cannon,  Aldrich, 
and  their  ilk  should  have  been  selected  for  the 
vice-presidency.  Not  to  be  eclipsed  by  the  Al- 
phonses  of  the  Republican  party,  the  Gastons 
of  the  Democratic  organization  reverted  to  the 
stamp  of  Taggart  and  Sullivan  in  the  choice 
of  a  vice-presidential  candidate,  disregarding 
the  advice  of  public  servants  like  Tom  John- 
son, as  the  Republicans  ignored  the  little  patri- 
otic coterie  led  by  LaFollette. 

A  leadership   of  the   people,   which   is   at- 
tained by  the  executive  only  by  circumventing 
the  intent  of  the  Constitution,  is  denied  to  the 
popular  body  of  the  legislature  in  various  ways. 
[169] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

The  strict  separation  of  legislative  and  execu- 
tive functions,  the  check  imposed  through  the 
Senate,  followed  by  the  possible  check  of  the 
President's  veto,  culminates  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Supreme  Court.  A  Constitution 
is  said  to  grow  not  to  be  made,  but  the  United 
States  Constitution  grows  only  like  a  potato 
in  a  cellar.  In  order  to  secure  the  accomplish- 
ment of  anything  and  prevent  the  unnecessary 
delay  of  public  business,  it  has  thus  become 
necessary  for  the  Speaker  of  the  House  to  ag- 
grandize his  office,  as  has  the  President.  A 
House  which  is  supposed  to  represent  the 
voice  of  the  people,  as  against  the  traditions 
of  the  States  embodied  in  the  Senate,  has  there- 
fore been  assailed  from  within  as  well  as  from 
without.  What  is  lacking  in  the  House  is 
naturally  not  supplied  in  the  Senate.  If  the 
House  has  failed  as  the  popular  branch,  the 
Senate  has  succeeded  in  being  the  unpopular 
body.  The  play  of  party  rivalry  not  only  pre- 
vents the  Senate  from  being  representative  of 
public  interests,  but  prostitutes  the  State  legis- 
latures, which  now  exist  primarily  for  the 
[170] 


Overworked  Political  Platitudes 

choice  of  these  unrepresentative  senators. 
The  difficulty  of  the  popular  control  by  Con- 
gress of  both  the  legislative  and  executive  de- 
partments of  government  is  increased  by  the 
necessity  of  referring  laws  to  the  decision  of 
the  Supreme  Court  to  determine  their  consti- 
tutionality and,  finally,  by  the  restraining  in- 
fluence of  the  principles  embodied  in  the  Con- 
stitution. 

Whatever  may  be  said  in  favor  of  a  written 
Constitution  (interpreted  by  a  Supreme 
Court)  providing  two  houses  of  Congress  to 
maintain  the  parity  of  representation  be- 
tween the  people  and  the  States,  and  an  inde- 
pendent executive  with  the  power  of 
veto,  it  must  be  admitted  that  it  is  difficult  for 
this  system  to  register  accurately  the  will 
of  the  people.  Mr.  Elihu  Root,  criticising 
]\Ir.  Bryan  and  the  Democratic  plat- 
form, said:  "Do  not  the  people  rule?  This 
is  a  representative  government.  It  surely 
is  not  proposed  to  do  away  with  repre- 
sentation and  have  85,000,000  of  people 
make  and  execute  their  laws  directly,  without 
[171] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

the  intervention  of  legislative  and  executive 
agents.  Are  not  the  laws  being  made  and 
executed  by  the  agents  whom  the  people  have 
selected  for  that  purpose?  I  find  that  by  the 
lawful  returns  of  the  last  presidential  election 
Theodore  Roosevelt  received  2,541,296  more 
votes  for  the  presidency  than  Alton  B.  Parker. 
Has  he  not  a  good  title  to  the  office?  Are 
not  the  people  ruling  through  him,  their  chosen 
executive,  so  far  as  his  part  in  the  govern- 
ment is  concerned?  Has  not  every  congres- 
sional district  been  represented  in  Congress  by 
the  man  whom  a  majority  of  its  voters  selected? 
Is  not  every  State  represented  in  the  Senate  by 
Senators  chosen  by  its  own  Legislature,  se- 
lected by  the  people  of  the  State  for  the  per- 
formance of  that  very  duty?" 

Mr.  Root  represents  that  body  of  compla- 
cent optimists  who  take  majority  rule  for 
granted,  without  examining  the  facts.  Mr. 
Hughes,  in  1906,  was  elected  Governor  of 
New  York  State  by  thirty  per  cent,  of  the 
males  of  voting  age,  or  nine  per  cent,  of  the 
population;  Governor  Guild  of  Massachusetts 
[172] 


Overworked  Political  Platitudes 

was  elected  in  1907  by  twenty-five  per  cent,  of 
the  males  of  voting  age,  although  he  received 
seventy-two  per  cent,  of  the  votes;  President 
Roosevelt  was  elected  by  thirty-five  per  cent, 
of  the  males  of  voting  age,  or  ten  per  cent,  of 
the  population.  It  is  not  only  a  small  propor- 
tion of  the  adult  populaT:ion  which  determines 
the  people's  representatives,  but  almost  in- 
variably a  minority  of  the  voting  males. 

The  trouble  with  the  present  system  is  that 
it  is  clumsy.  It  was  designed  as  a  protest 
against  monarchy  and  aristocracy,  when  the 
belief  naturally  prevailed  that  the  best  govern- 
ment was  that  which  governed  least.  It  was 
the  result  of  the  compromise  of  different  kinds 
of  men  representing  thirteen  inharmonious 
colonies,  most  of  whom  did  not  believe  the 
American  people  had  the  capacity  for  self- 
government.  With  the  pressure  of  public 
business  and  the  increase  in  popular  enlighten- 
ment, it  has  become  necessary  to  get  things 
done.  In  order  to  accomplish  this,  under  ex- 
isting conditions,  the  president  and  the  speaker 
of  the  house  must  be  autocratic,  with  the  result 
[173] 


'Democracy  and  the  Overman 

that  popular  government  becomes  accidental. 
With  a  William  JNIcKinley  in  the  chair  noth- 
ing of  importance  is  accomplished;  with  a 
Joseph  Cannon  most  of  the  actions  are  mis- 
chievous; with  a  Theodore  Roosevelt  fortun- 
ately the  preponderance  of  influence  is  favor- 
able; but  the  accomplishments  of  the  last  two, 
for  good  or  ill,  are  the  result  of  the  arbitrary 
use  of  power  which  must  soon  be  vested 
in  authoritative,  but  popularly  controlled 
hands. 

President  Roosevelt,  naively  blending  the 
executive  and  legislative,  credits  the  last  ad- 
ministration with:  "The  creation  of  the  de- 
partment of  commerce  and  labor,  together 
with  the  creation  of  a  bureau  of  corporations, 
which  marks  the  beginning  of  federal  control 
over  the  large  corporations  doing  an  inter- 
state business,  the  employers'  liability  law,  the 
safety  appliance  law,  the  law  limiting  the 
working  hours  of  railway  employees,  the  meat 
inspection  law,  the  denatured  alcohol  law,  the 
anti-rebate  law,  the  laws  increasing  the  powers 
of  the  department  of  justice  in  dealing  with 
[174] 


OvenvorJced  Political  Platitudes 

those,  regardless  of  wealth  and  power,  who 
infract  the  law,  the  law  making  the  govern- 
ment liable  for  injuries  to  its  employees,  the 
laws  under  which  the  Panama  canal  was  ac- 
quired and  is  being  built,  the  Philippines  ad- 
ministered, and  the  navy  developed,  the  laws 
creating  a  permanent  census  bureau  and  re- 
forming the  consular  service  and  the  system  of 
naturalization,  the  law  forbidding  child  labor 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  the  law  providing 
a  commission  under  which  our  currency  system 
can  be  put  on  a  thoroughly  satisfactory  basis, 
the  laws  for  the  proper  administration  of  the 
forest  service,  the  laws  for  the  admission  of 
Oklahoma  and  the  development  of  Alaska,  the 
great  appropriations  for  the  development  of 
agriculture,  the  legal  prohibition  of  campaign 
contributions  from  corporations — all  these 
represent  but  a  portion  of  what  has  been  done 
by  Congress,  and  form  a  record  of  substantial 
legislative  achievement  in  harmony  with  the 
best  and  most  progressive  thought  of  our  own 
people." 

The  chief  result  of  the  Roosevelt  adminis- 
[1T5] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

tration  is  that  supporters,  opponents  and  the 
apathetic  have  been  compelled  to  sit  up  and 
take  notice.  The  bad  is  inextricably  mixed 
with  the  good;  the  President  has  been  at  one 
time  prophetic,  at  another  muddle-headed,  but 
meanwhile  "the  world  do  move."  The  conse- 
quence is  that  not  only  has  there  been  a  greater 
volume  of  progressive  and  aggressive  legis- 
lation than  in  several  previous  decades,  but  it 
has  been  accomplished  by  appeals  to  public 
opinion,  frequently  in  disregard  of  party.  As 
Mr.  Root  said  in  speaking  of  the  Hughes  and 
Roosevelt  administrations : 

"There  have  been  two  special  and  notable 
characteristics  in  which  these  two  administra- 
tions have  been  alike.  One  is  that  they  have 
both  gone  directly  to  the  people  of  the  country, 
to  the  great  body  of  the  electors  themselves." 

The  intelligent  and  patriotic  American  who 
is  watching  the  evolution  of  American  institu- 
tions and  sees  how  the  administration  of  the 
common  life  compels  modified  executive  and 
legislative  action  must  be  astounded  at  the  au- 
dacious corollary  with  which  Mr.  Root  blandly 
[176] 


Overworked  Political  Platitudes 

follows  this  admission  of  the  power  of  public 
opinion  when  he  says:  "We  can  turn  to  the 
administrations  now  drawing  to  a  close,  both 
in  the  State  and  in  the  Nation,  and  with  con- 
fidence ask  every  American  voter  to  say 
whether  they  have  not  met  all  the  great  fun- 
damental requisites  of  good  government, 
whether  they  do  not  justify  the  belief  that  it 
is  best  for  the  country  to  keep  in  power  the 
party  [ !}  which  is  responsible  for  them  and  is 
entitled  to  the  credit  of  them." 

It  is  not  remarkable  that  Mr.  Taft,  upon 
whom  the  mantle  of  the  President  is  sup- 
posed to  have  fallen,  should  make  a  similar 
claim  for  the  Republican  party,  which  as  a 
party  has  antagonized  almost  every  progres- 
sive move  made  by  this  President,  who  became 
its  leader  by  accident.  If  it  were  not  for  the 
popular  acquiescence  of  the  unthinking,  one 
might  expect  a  universal  protest  against  JNIr. 
Taft's  sublime  presumption  when  he  says: 
"If  ever  a  party  earned  the  verdict  of  well 
done  by  the  record  of  the  last  seven  years,  and 
the  reward  of  a  renewed  mandate  of  power,  it 
[177] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

is  the  Republican  party;  under  Theodore 
Roosevelt." 

No  one  doubts  Mr.  Roosevelt's  intention  of 
conferring  the  mantle  of  Elijah  upon  his 
ponderous  understudy,  but  a  rival  claim  was 
presented  by  Mr.  Bryan  who  said  that  he  en- 
dorsed the  President's  policies  but  did  not  need 
to  be  the  legatee  of  the  mantle,  as  it  was  filched 
from  him.  Mr.  Roosevelt  is  not  Elijah  but 
Ehsha,  and  Mr.  Taft,  like  Dowie,  Ehjah  II. 
It  is  not  a  purely  partisan  quibble  whether 
Mr.  Bryan  or  Mr.  Roosevelt  has  stolen  the 
other's  thunder.  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  the  op- 
portunity which  Mr.  Bryan  lacked.  We  can- 
not know  what  Mr.  Bryan  would  have  done,  or 
would  do,  but  we  know  that  what  Mr.  Roose- 
velt did  was  eagerly  endorsed  by  those  ambi- 
tious to  be  his  successors.  "My  policies"  may 
be  right  or  wrong,  desirable  or  undesirable,  but 
it  is  too  late  to  return  to  the  pusillanimous  poli- 
cies of  the  time-serving  McKinley. 

What  have  we  a  right  to  expect  of  the 
promises  of  the  Republican  and  Democratic 
leaders?  Each  was  chosen  by  his  party  as  the 
[178] 


Overworked  Political  Platitudes 

sole  candidate  to  succeed  the  strenuous  execu- 
tive, against  the  opposition  of  the  party  ring- 
leaders. Having  received  the  nomination 
without  compromise,  each  relaxed  his  stern 
political  idealism  and  allowed  the  nomination 
of  an  unworthy  running  mate,  subservient  to 
the  worst  element  of  his  party.  Each  permit- 
ted the  dictation  of  the  platform  by  the  op- 
ponents of  popular  welfare.  Each  is  com- 
pelled to  stand  upon  an  emasculated  platform 
to  which  he  must  sacrifice  his  independence. 
Neither  JNIr.  Taft  nor  Mr.  Bryan  has  indi- 
cated since  nomination  that  any  principle  is 
at  stake  except  that  of  office  holding. 

Mr.  Taft  effected  a  compromise  in  Ohio 
with  the  senior  senator;  Mr.  Bryan  tolerated 
as  treasurer  of  his  party  the  governor  of  Okla- 
homa, neither  of  whom  needed  a  Hearst  to  re- 
veal his  character  to  the  well  informed  and 
upright  citizen.  Mr.  Taft  made  terms  with 
the  boss  of  Cincinnati,  whom  he  had  personally 
driven  from  power;  ]Mr.  Bryan  surrendered 
to  the  boss  of  Illinois,  whom  he  had  uncom- 
promisingly and  spectacularly  fought.  Mr. 
[179] 


'Democracy  and  the  Overman 

Taft  denied  himself  the  assistance  of  the 
courageous  little  Senator  from  Wisconsin  and 
accepted  the  dictation  of  the  foul-mouthed 
Speaker  of  the  House.  Mr.  Bryan  permitted 
the  suppression  of  Cleveland's  public  spirited 
mayor  and  joined  hands  with  the  chief  gambler 
of  Indiana.  Neither  can  claim  the  mantle  of 
Elijah,  worn  though  it  may  be  by  peculiar 
prophetic  services. 

Mr.  Taft  is  the  apostle  of  the  obvious,  Mr. 
Bryan  is  the  prophet  of  the  dubious. 

The  issues  before  the  American  people  are 
so  numerous  and  momentous  that  all  the  time 
of  each  candidate  might  have  been  occupied  in 
outlining  constructive  policies,  had  he  not  been 
restrained  by  fear  or  ignorance.  In  spite  of 
the  good  fortune  for  the  country  that  each  can- 
didate bears  an  irreproachable  character,  there 
must  be  reflection  on  either  intellectual  or 
moral  capacity  in  the  failure  or  inability  to 
grapple  with  the  fundamental  social  prob- 
lems. The  respected  public  servant  and  the 
idolized  popular  prophet  are  both  sacrificed  to 
the  interests  which  control  parties.     The  coun- 

[180] 


Overworked  Political  Platitudes 

try  still  waits  for  a  clear-headed,  constructive 
statesman. 

Public  pressure  has  forced  some  encoura- 
ging advances.  The  public  conscience  is  be- 
coming tender.  Not  only  was  Mr.  Foraker 
compelled  to  abstain  from  public  appearance 
on  behalf  of  the  Republican  candidate,  but 
even  General  Du  Pont,  at  whom  only  insinua- 
tions were  directed,  found  it  expedient  to 
withdraw  from  the  Republican  committee. 
These  are  very  different  days  from  those  in 
which  McKinley  was  managed  by  Mark 
Hanna  and  no  objection  came  from  within 
the  party  lines  to  his  dictatorship,  although  he 
was  more  boldly  the  representative  of  corpo- 
rate interests  than  the  men  who  have  felt  it 
necessary  to  withdraw  from  the  party  counsels 
in  this  last  campaign.  Similarly  the  treasurer 
of  the  Democratic  party  felt  it  necessary  to 
resign,  although  protesting  his  innocence  of 
the  charges  brought  against  him.  The  at- 
mosphere must  be  different  from  that  which 
Richard  Croker  and  others  of  his  stripe 
breathed  so  freely  in  former  campaigns. 
[181] 


^Democracy  and  'the  'Overman 

It  is  evident  that  public  opinion  has  changed 
also  regarding  the  supremacy  of  the  state 
over  the  corporations  created  by  it.  In  fact 
Senator  Beveridge  in  campaigning  for  Taft 
said:  "We  declare  that  no  power  in  the  na- 
tion shall  be  greater  than  the  nation;  that  no 
corporation  created  to  serve  the  people  shall 
be  above  the  people." 

That  conservative  of  conservatives,  Mr. 
Root,  said: 

"Never  anywhere  in  the  long  history  of  mankind's 
struggles  for  better  conditions  has  there  been  among  so 
many  millions  of  people  so  great  a  diffusion  of  wealth, 
such  universal  comfort  of  living,  such  ready  rewards  for 
industry  and  enterprise,  such  unlimited  opportunities  for 
education  and  individual  advancement  and  such  inde- 
pendence and  dignity  of  manhood  as  in  our  country  now. 
Government  did  not  make  these  conditions,  but  they 
would  have  been  impossible  without  wise  and  good  gov- 
ernment, and  wise  and  good  government  is  necessary  to 
their  continuance." 

Mr.  Olney  admitted,  "that  in  respect  to  the 
radical    policies    referred    to    and    generally 
[182] 


Overworked  Political  Platitudes 

though  indefinitely  designated  as  sociahstic, 
both  parties  are  tarred  with  the  same  stick." 

The  cat  is  out  of  the  bag!  The  Democrats 
may  attempt  to  rivet  the  attention  of  the  peo- 
ple on  the  maintenance  of  ancient  states' 
rights  rather  than  the  performance  of  public 
business ;  the  Republicans  may  fall  back  on  the 
imperative  need  of  long  neglected  tariff  re- 
form, to  the  disregard  of  the  administration  of 
the  common  life ;  but  the  people  are  beginning 
to  see  that  local  home  rule  is  not  synonymous 
with  states'  rights,  and  that  tariff  revision  is 
not  the  issue  between  the  parties.  The  real 
issue  is  how  to  get  things  done.  It  is  not  pos- 
sible to  perform  increasing  public  business  and 
avoid  the  imputation  of  socialism  by  the  de- 
signing and  unfriendly. 

A  plank  in  the  Republican  platform  ex- 
pressly charges  the  Democratic  party  with  be- 
ing the  representative  of  these  revolutionary 
tendencies.     Mr.  Bryan  retaliates  by  saying: 

"The  Republican  party  is  loud  in  its  denunciation  of 
socialism,  but  it  is  constantly  feeding  and  augmenting 

ri83] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

the  socialistic  spirit;  it  permits  abuses  which  cast  an 
odium  upon  individualism  and  furnish  an  argument  to 
socialists.  It  cultivates  the  industries  instead  of  culti- 
vating industrial  independence  and  a  spirit  of  self-re- 
liance. In  its  latest  national  platform,  it  boldly  de- 
clares that  reasonable  profits  should  be  guaranteed  to 
the  protected  industries.  It  defends  the  principle  of 
monopoly  on  the  theory  that  competition  is  hurtful.  In 
taking  this  position  it  supports  the  main  contention  of 
the  socialists.  Mr.  Taft,  the  Republican  candidate, 
in  the  speech  announcing  his  candidacy,  advocated  such 
an  amendment  of  the  anti-trust  law  as  would  make  it  ap- 
ply only  to  unreasonable  restraint  of  trade.  This  idea, 
that  reasonable  restraint  of  trade  is  unobjectionable,  is 
the  entering  wedge — it  is  the  first  step  toward  the  anni- 
hilation of  the  principle  of  competition. 

"The  Democratic  party  has  been  called  a  socialistic 
party  and  I  have  been  denounced  as  a  socialist.  I  con- 
tend that  the  Republican  party,  not  the  Democratic 
party,  is  aiding  the  Socialist  party;  and  this  is  evident 
from  the  fact  that  the  socialist  leaders  prefer  the  Re- 
publican success  to  Democratic  success.  They  fear 
that  Democratic  reforms  will  retard  socialism  and  they 
believe  that  Republican  abuse  can  be  used  to  arouse  op- 
position to  the  entire  competitive  system.  The  Demo- 
cratic party  would  argue  with  the  socialist,  while  the 
Republican  party  denounces  him,  but  the  Democratic 
party  would  remove  the  spirit  of  unrest  and  discontent 
[184] 


Overworked  Political  Platitudes 

by   eliminating  the   abuses   that   are  the   foundation   of 
unrest  and  discontent." 

Why  this  fear  of  a  name!  Mr.  Taft  said 
(before  the  campaign,  of  course)  : 

"Under  a  representative  form  of  government  the  in- 
terests of  any  particular  set  of  people  are  more  likely  to 
be  advanced  when  represented  by  one  of  themselves  than 
by  one  of  another  class,  no  matter  how  altruistic." 

All  the  Republican  leaders  have  been  at 
pains  to  defend  the  billion  dollar  Congress 
and  the  multiplication  of  officeholders,  on  the 
ground  of  work  performed.  The  fact  is  here 
— the  name  for  it  is  being  evaded.  The  exi- 
gencies of  public  life  have  forced  an  enlarge- 
ment of  the  state.  It  is  still  possible  to 
control  this  in  the  interest  of  officeholders  and 
privileged  corporations,  but  all  the  ills  threat- 
ened with  the  advent  of  socialism,  are  fewer 
than  those  which  will  inevitably  result  on  the 
undemocratic,  paternalistic  enlargement  of  the 
state.  The  people  do  not  rule,  despite  the 
violent  claims  of  Mr.  Taft,  Mr.  Sherman  and 
[185] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

Mr.  Root,  nor  has  Mr.  Bryan  the  right  to  ask 
that  they  should  rule,  since  he  has  abandoned 
his  program  of  initiative  and  referendum. 

In  spite  of  these  socialistic  tendencies  forced 
upon  the  government  and  unwillingly  admit- 
ted in  fragmentary  form  in  the  platforms,  the 
lack  of  clear  headed  statesmanship  causes  a 
neglect  of  the  most  urgent  problems.  Mr. 
Taft  and  Mr.  Bryan  both  claim  to  favor  ex- 
tending the  franchise  to  woman,  but  it  is  not 
a  campaign  issue !  Both  profess  great  friend- 
liness to  the  negro,  but  the  Republican  party 
dodges  the  readjustment  of  representation  in 
the  Southern  States;  while  ]Mr.  Bryan  dare 
not  take  advantage  of  the  negro  revolt  because 
the  most  loyal  supporters  of  his  party  are  the 
chief  enemies  of  the  negro.  While  a  prohibi- 
tion wave  is  sweeping  the  country,  what  has 
either  partj^  to  say  about  the  regulation  of  al- 
cohol? Prohibition,  local  option,  high  or  low 
license,  the  Sunday  saloon,  the  domination  of 
the  liquor  interests  are  all  skillfully  evaded. 

There  is  much  talk  of  the  tariff.  Although 
the  Republicans  have  up  to  the  present  moment 
[186] 


Overworked  Political  Platitudes 

done  nothing  for  organic  reform,  they  claim 
to  have  all  the  necessary  wisdom  for  revision 
now,  while  the  Democratic  party,  which  lost  its 
opportunity  in  two  preceding  administrations, 
passes  over  other  crying  evils  and  obliterates 
its  previous  watchwords  to  emphasize  its  tradi- 
tional antipathy  to  the  tariff.  Meanwhile 
what  becomes  of  a  scientific  system  of  taxa- 
tion? The  Democratic  party  reiterates  its  be- 
lief in  an  income  tax,  but  who  shall  take  the 
lead  in  the  abolition  of  the  pernicious  American 
methods  of  indirect  taxation,  in  favor  of  a 
just  and  fruitful  absorption  of  the  unearned 
increment?  Where  is  the  voice  in  opposition 
to  militarism?  Mr.  Roosevelt's  "big  stick'* 
finds  its  chief  support  in  the  loud-mouthed 
Democrat,  Hobson.  Both  platforms  express 
their  devotion  to  a  burdensome  navy,  but 
where  shall  one  find  in  platform  principles  or 
the  utterances  of  the  candidates  a  word  for  the 
unemployed? 

Honorary  membership  in  unions  ought  not 
to  delude  the  thoughtful  workingman  when 
he  finds  nothing  in  or  on  the  platform  regard- 
[1871 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

ing  the  care  and  training  of  the  unemployed; 
the  compulsory  education  of  the  working- 
man's  children;  the  distribution  of  immigra- 
tion so  as  to  prevent  the  congestion  of  the  in- 
ferior, unskilled  labor  at  the  great  industrial 
centers;  old  age  pensions  (already  secured  in 
those  countries  which  are  the  chief  industrial 
competitors  of  the  United  States)  ;  accident 
insurance,  and  other  extensions  of  the  employ- 
ers' liability  law  (which  each  platform  effu- 
sively demands)  ;  shorter  hours  of  labor, 
a  Saturday  half -holiday,  or  any  other  means  of 
making  life  richer  by  well  ordered  industry. 

The  people  are,  of  course,  concerned  as  to 
the  rescue  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
from  the  grip  of  the  Speaker,  the  popular 
election  of  Senators,  the  apportionment  of  the 
functions  of  government  to  the  nation  and  the 
states,  and  all  the  other  questions  of  adminis- 
tration. They  are  not  oblivious  to  the  ques- 
tion of  bank  deposits,  tariff  reform,  the  multi- 
plication of  officeholders,  and  the  expense  of 
the  government;  but  they  are  primarily  con- 
cerned in  getting  things  done — no  matter  how 
[188], 


Overworked  Political  Platitudes 

great  may  be  the  extension  of  governmental 
functions  to  accomplish  this  end.  They  are 
tired  of  epithets  and  promises,  negative  criti- 
cisms, and  historical  reminiscences.  They  are 
apparently  not  yet  prepared  in  large  numbers 
to  fight  for  principle,  or  to  refuse  to  vote  for 
either  of  the  conspicuous  candidates,  or  to  ig- 
nore the  presidential  office  and  reform 
congress.  There  will  be  many  quadrennials 
before  the  people,  through  their  just  and  law- 
ful asking,  receive  a  full  loaf,  but  a  half -loaf 
is  better  than  stones,  and  the  chief  fruits  of  this 
campaign  should  be  the  recognition  of  the 
emptiness  of  political  platitudes  and  a  clearer 
demand  for  constructive  statesmanship. 


189 


I 


THE  OVERLOOKED 
CHARTERS  OF  CITIES 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   OVERLOOKED   CHARTERS   OF   CITIES 

THE  government  of  the  United  States  of 
America  is  handicapped  by  a  written 
Constitution,  the  fundamental  principle 
of  which  is  the  separation  of  legislative  and 
executive  functions.  This  historic  document, 
composed  by  painful  compromise  for  the  serv- 
ice of  the  primitive  society  of  the  tliirteen  origi- 
nal states  in  the  eighteenth  century,  has  been 
too  inelastic  to  permit  the  adaptation  of  po- 
litical institutions  to  the  needs  of  the  twentieth 
century.  It  is  now  in  process  of  breaking 
down,  through  inability  to  support  the  weight 
of  a  complex  industrial  society.^ 

The  hope  of  American  poHtics  Hes  in  the 
evolution     of     municipal     government.     The 

1  See  J.   Allen  Smith,   The  Spirit   of  American  Government 
(Macmillan). 

193 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

rapid  increase  of  urban  populations  was  not 
anticipated  by  the  framers  of  the  American 
Constitution.  There  has  consequently  been  a 
constant  experimentation  in  charter-making, 
with  predominantly  futile  results.  In  course 
of  time,  however,  the  simple  principle  has 
emerged,  that  the  charter  should  be  adapted 
to  the  functions  of  the  city,  and  from  this  prin- 
ciple there  may  be  deduced  the  analogy  that 
the  government  of  state  and  nation  must  be 
functional,  rather  than  arbitrary  or  historic. 
The  cities  which  have  suffered  because  no  pro- 
vision was  made  originally  for  their  govern- 
ment may  be  the  saviors  of  the  nation,  through 
the  djTiamic  of  experience. 

There  are  now  a  hundred  cities  in  the 
United  States  larger  than  any  city  was  at 
the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Federal 
Constitution.  The  combined  population  of 
three  cities — New  York,  Chicago  and  Phil- 
adelphia— is  nearly  three  times  as  great 
as  the  entire  population  of  the  United 
States  in  1789.  The  American  colonies  were 
essentially  rural,  but  the  United  States  has  be- 
[194] 


The  Overlooked  Charters  of  Cities 

come  increasingly  urban.  In  1840,  eight  per 
cent,  of  the  population  lived  in  cities;  in  1860, 
sixteen  per  cent,  were  urban;  in  1900,  thirty- 
three  per  cent.  More  than  a  third  of  the  popu- 
lation, numbering  in  all  thirty  millions,  live 
under  the  unsystematized,  badly  administered, 
municipal  governments. 

The  most  distinguished  interpreter  of  con- 
temporary American  politics.  Ambassador 
James  Bryce,  said  in  his  "American  Common- 
wealth" in  1889,  that  the  American  municipal- 
ity was  the  one  failure  in  the  governmental 
system.  In  these  latter  days  he  has  happily 
modified  his  statement,  for  it  is  in  no  sense  true 
today.  The  American  municipality  is  badly 
governed,  but  no  worse  than  the  state  or  the 
nation,  and  the  hope  of  the  future  is  to  be 
found  in  the  enthusiasm  and  higher  moral 
standard  aroused  by  recent  experiments  in  city 
government.  Valuable  as  contemporary  ex- 
periments are  proving,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  most  of  the  endeavors  of  the  last  century 
and  a  quarter  have  borne  only  evil. 

The   first   consequence   of   establishing   the 
[195] 


Democracy  mid  the  Overman 

government  of  a  new  country  on  the  principle 
of  a  written  constitution  which  made  no  pro- 
vision for  the  administration  of  cities,  was  that 
the  constant  crudity  of  citizenship  expressed 
itself  in  a  chaos  of  charters.  Whenever  a 
municipal  government  has  proved  ineffective, 
enthusiastic  municipal  reformers  have  begun 
tinkering  with  the  charter,  without  any  well- 
devised  political  philosophy,  and  without  try- 
ing to  make  the  existing  charter  more  effective. 
The  original  plan  of  municipal  government, 
borrowed  from  the  mother  country,  was  the 
simple  one  of  a  council,  a  central,  representa- 
tive, all-powerful  body,  unencumbered  by  any 
checks  or  vetoes  such  as  make  national  and  state 
governments  ineffectual.  This  council,  called 
"selectmen" — or  by  some  other  designation  in 
different  parts  of  the  country — retained  its 
integrity  only  a  little  while,  when  its  service 
proved  unsatisfactory.  The  first  modification 
suggested  was  the  addition  of  a  mayor,  with 
minor  executive  functions,  but  with  the  power 
of  veto  over  legislation.  There  was  thus  in- 
troduced what  wajs  regarded  as  a  corrective 
[196J 


The  Overlooked  Charters  of  Cities 

force  for  the  impulsiveness  or  inadequacy  of 
the  counciknen,  but  it  proved  to  be  the  first  of 
the  destructive  forces,  making  city  government 
increasingly  ineffectual.  The  mayor,  first 
chosen  by  the  council,  was  subsequently  elected 
by  the  people;  and  this  system  of  divided  au- 
thority remains  characteristic  of  most  of  the 
cities  in  America. 

The  next  step  in  the  modification  of  the 
simple  council  also  followed  the  analogy  of  the 
national  and  state  governments,  many  cities 
dividing  their  legislative  body  into  a  select  and 
a  common  council.  Legislation  was  thus  re- 
tarded and  made  more  difficult,  a  process  w^hich 
has  resulted  in  the  course  of  time  in  hindering 
good  legislation  rather  than  bad.  Fortu- 
nately, the  practice  has  not  become  universal, 
and  the  majority  of  the  cities  still  retain  the 
single  council.  Whichever  method  was 
adopted,  dissatisfaction  increased,  and  further 
modifications  were  made  by  the  appointment  of 
boards  or  commissions,  sometimes  by  the  coun- 
cil, sometimes  by  the  mayor,  sometimes  elected 
directly  by  the  people,  and,  at  times,  appointed 
[197] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

by  the  governor.  Accompanying  this  tend- 
ency to  diffuse  responsibihty  was  the  usual 
"democratic"  demand  for  the  popular  election 
of  as  many  officials  as  possible,  on  the  supposi- 
tion that  the  people  thus  secured  better  con- 
trol. 

The  consequence  of  all  these  steps  has  been 
divided  responsibility.  Occasionally  a  commis- 
sion has  been  needed  as  an  emergency  meas- 
ure, and  has  temporarily  proved  more  efficient 
only  to  result  in  permanent  disaster  because  of 
the  reliance  placed  upon  it  instead  of  upon  the 
tedious  process  of  educating  the  citizen  for 
self-government.  The  natural  result  of  all 
these  complicated  changes  is  to  put  an  increas- 
ing amount  of  power  in  the  party  organiza- 
tions, to  develop  a  system  of  political  bosses, 
concerned  for  patronage  on  the  one  hand  and 
for  the  support  of  the  national  party  at  the  ex- 
pense of  local  interests  on  the  other.  The 
people  have  become  bewildered  and  discour- 
aged, and  in  some  instances  it  has  been  pos- 
sible for  the  state  legislatures  to  pass  what  are 
known  as  "ripper  bills,"  taking  from  the  pec- 
[198] 


The  Overlooked  Charters  of  Cities 

pie  not  only  the  right  of  self-government,  but 
even  the  officials  they  have  chosen. 

This  unintelligent  groping  for  governmen- 
tal reforms  would  have  been  adequate  to  se- 
cure municipal  inefficiency;  but  to  this  has 
been  added  increasingly  the  activity  of  the 
aggressive  private  corporation,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  civic  apathy.  The  business  talent 
will  always  rule  a  community;  if  it  cannot  be 
induced  to  serve  in  official  position  and  to  sub- 
ordinate private  to  public  interest,  it  will, 
nevertheless,  rule  indirectly.  The  founda- 
tions of  politics,  as  of  all  the  rest  of  social 
life,  are  necessarily  economic,  and  the  over- 
man dominates  the  American  community  to 
his  own  advantage,  without  participating,  as 
a  rule,  directly  in  politics. 

There  has  been  in  the  history  of  the  Ameri- 
can municipality  a  vast  amount  of  raw 
political  corruption  due  to  office-seeking,  tol- 
erated often  by  the  people,  whose  crude  con- 
ception of  equality  has  approved  of  rotation 
in  office;  but  more  and  more  the  controlling 
force  in  the  city  has  become  the  big  business 
[199] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

interest  wishing  special  privileges.  The  pri- 
vate corporation  never  sleeps:  the  public  gen- 
erally does.  Even  when  the  officials  are 
honest — a  not  invariable  situation — the  legal 
talent  of  the  private  business  is  necessarily 
alert  in  its  defense.  The  sluggish  people  are 
aroused  once  or  twice  a  year  to  halting  action 
through  public  officials,  much  less  competent 
that  the  officers  of  the  private  company.  In 
consequence,  these  public  officials  have  become 
susceptible  to  the  influence  of  the  stronger 
economic  interests  of  the  overman,  the  people 
have  been  indifferent,  and  the  custom  has 
grown  of  employing  improper  methods  to 
secure  special  privileges.  When  a  large 
lighting  company  presented  a  franchise  to 
the  city  council  of  a  northwestern  city  re- 
centlj',  the  interests  of  the  public  were  found 
to  be  so  safeguarded  through  the  foresight  of 
the  officers,  who  saw  the  increasing  tendency 
to  impose  restrictions  upon  private  business, 
that  the  city  councilmen  refused  to  grant  the 
franchise,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  incredible 
that  a  private  company  could  offer  such  liberal 
[200] 


The  Overlooked  Charters  of  Cities 

terms.  The  proposition  seemed  so  fair  to  the 
city  that  the  public  officials  could  not  help  be- 
lieving that  there  must  be  "a  nigger  in  the 
woodpile." 

A  few  of  the  less  familiar  instances  of  mu- 
nicipal corruption  will  indicate  the  forces 
which  have  tended  to  arouse  the  American  citi- 
zen to  the  necessity  of  municipal  reorganiza- 
tion. There  was  presented  to  a  city  on  the 
Great  Lakes,  in  1899,  a  proposition  to  extend 
the  franchise  of  the  street  railway  company  for 
ten  years,  from  1924.  The  plea  was  made  that 
in  order  to  improve  the  service  it  was  necessary 
to  issue  bonds,  for  which  the  credit  of  the  com- 
pany might  be  enhanced  by  these  larger  privi- 
leges. It  seemed  to  the  people  of  the  city  an 
unwarranted  demand,  as  any  competent  body 
of  men  should  be  able  to  make  large  profits  on 
a  street  railway  system  in  a  city  of  a  quarter 
of  a  million  inhabitants  in  twenty-five  years. 
The  campaign,  therefore,  revolved  about  this 
proposition.  The  Republican  party  was  sus- 
pected, because  the  president  of  the  street  rail- 
way company  was  its  boss.  The  opposition, 
[201] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

therefore,  effected  a  fusion  between  the  Demo- 
cratic and  Popuhst  parties  and  nominated  a 
mayor  who  was  to  be  the  representative  of  the 
people  against  the  street  railway  company.  A 
body  of  exceptionally  honest  aldermen  was  to 
be  chosen  to  support  the  mayor.  The  people 
were  victorious  and,  presumably,  the  street  rail- 
way company  defeated. 

It  was  soon  discovered,  however,  that  the 
people's  mayor  and  the  honest  aldermen  were 
about  to  grant  the  franchise  desired  to  the 
street  railway  company.  This  was  so  traitor- 
ous that  a  wide-spread  public  agitation  occu- 
pied the  city  for  a  fortnight.  There  was  ap- 
parently unanimous  disapproval  of  the  pro- 
posed action  of  the  council.  In  spite  of  that, 
the  franchise  was  passed  by  the  council  and 
signed  by  the  mayor.  It  is  difficult  to  believe 
that  such  high-handed  methods  could  be  em- 
ployed in  any  city  at  the  dawn  of  the  twen- 
tieth century,  and  the  presumption  might  be 
that  only  by  the  most  corrupt  methods  could 
such  action  be  brought  to  pass.  It  is  not,  how- 
ever, necessary^  to  imply  that  the  public  of- 
[202] 


The  Overlooked  Charters  of  Cities 

ficials  were  directly  bought,  as  a  single 
illustration  will  show.  One  of  the  "honest" 
aldermen  had  a  brother  in  the  coal  business. 
Immediately  after  the  election  the  brother  re- 
ceived a  contract  to  furnish  the  street  railway 
company  with  coal,  and  the  "honest"  alderman 
voted  for  the  ordinance.  In  enlightened  com- 
munities this  would  be  regarded  as  corrupt; 
but  where  political  life  is  primitive  the  people 
are  still  dominated  by  personal  motives  upon 
which  the  sophisticated  overman  and  the  poli- 
ticians play,  while  themselves  ignoring  person- 
al or  party  obligations. 

In  extenuation  of  the  corrupt  alliance  of! 
business  man  and  politician,  it  should  be  stated 
that  these  stupid  people  three  times  re-elected 
the  corrupt  mayor.  It  is  almost  incredible 
that  a  street  railway  president  and  a  hotel 
proprietor  could  hold  in  the  hollow  of  their 
hands  a  city  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  people, 
presumably  in  possession  of  universal  suf- 
frage. Even  the  minor  business  interests  in 
a  city  like  that  are  subservient,  the  intelligent, 
high-minded  people  usually  constitute  an  in-, 
[203] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

significant  minority,  while  the  masses  are  un- 
organized or  disorganized  through  the  same 
short-sighted  self-interest.  That  the  people 
will  not  always  remain  a  mob,  while  the  over- 
man flirts  with  impartial  disloyalty  with  both 
political  parties,  is  illustrated  by  the  election 
of  a  Socialist  mayor  in  Milwaukee. 

The  city  of  Chicago  had  been  served  for 
some  time,  more  or  less  efficiently,  by  a  private 
gas  company,  which  had  secured  control  of  the 
entire  supply  of  the  city.  There  was  a  charge 
of  a  dollar  a  thousand  cubic  feet  for  illumina- 
ting gas  and  seventy-five  cents  for  fuel  gas,  the 
quality,  of  course,  being  the  same  in  both 
cases.  The  city  undertook  to  regulate  the 
price  of  gas  by  establishing  a  maximum  charge 
of  seventy-five  cents  for  any  service.  This 
was  promptly  taken  into  the  courts,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  American  method  of  dis- 
covering whether  the  law  is  "constitutional," 
and  there  it  remained  for  years.  Meanwhile  a 
docile  people  continued  to  pay  a  dollar  for 
illuminating  gas. 

Then  the  city  council  resorted  to  that  device 
[204] 


The  Overlooked  Charters  of  Cities 

of  antiquity,  "enforced  competition."  They 
passed  an  ordinance  granting  a  franchise  to  a 
competing  gas  company  on  condition  that  it 
should  not  sell  out  to  the  larger  company 
known  as  the  "trust."  The  small  company  be- 
gan to  furnish  gas  in  a  limited  area  of  the 
city  and  was  promptly  met  by  a  reduction  of 
rates,  so  that  shortly  the  people  of  that  favored 
area  were  enjoying  gas  from  either  company 
at  forty  cents  a  thousand  cubic  feet.  This 
pressure  the  smaller  company  could  not  stand, 
but  it  was  forbidden  to  sell  out,  so  that  the 
people  rejoiced  in  the  situation — for  a  few 
weeks!  Then  the  gas  "trust"  entered  into  an 
agreement  with  the  competing  company,  offer- 
ing to  buy  this  company  out  at  the  expiration 
of  its  franchise,  and  operating  meanwhile  upon 
a  "gentlemen's  agreement."  The  price  of  gas 
was  immediately  restored;  and  by  way  of  re- 
buking the  people  for  attempting  to  interfere 
with  the  prerogatives  of  a  private  company  the 
price  of  fuel  gas  was  also  raised  to  a  dollar. 

Then  began  a  series  of  investigations  with 
regard  to  legitimate  prices,  and  the  question 
[205] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

as  to  whether  the  city  could  regulate  was 
pressed  in  the  courts  by  the  public  authorities. 
A  distinguished  engineer,  the  head  of  one  of 
the  great  schools  of  technology,  testified  in 
the  investigation  as  to  the  legitimate  price  for 
gas,  that  the  company  could  not  afford  to  sell 
gas  for  less  than  ninety-five  cents.  Shortly 
thereafter  the  company  itself  presented  an 
ordinance  to  the  city  council  asking  to  have  the 
price  of  gas  regulated  at  eighty-five  cents — 
presumably  a  dead  loss  to  the  company  of  ten 
cents  per  thousand  cubic  feet,  on  the  basis  of 
expert  advice.  The  council  was  so  impressed 
with  the  generosity  of  this  offer  that  it 
promptly  passed  the  ordinance,  which,  how- 
ever, was  vetoed  by  a  mayor  devoted  to  the 
public  interests.  The  council  then,  in  great 
haste,  passed  the  ordinance  by  a  two-thirds 
vote  over  the  mayor's  veto.  The  very  next 
day  the  Supreme  Court  rendered  a  decision, 
giving  the  city  the  right  to  regulate  the  price 
of  gas.  The  officials  of  the  gas  company  must 
have  anticipated  this  decision,  but  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  and  the  people  them- 
[206] 


The  Overlooked  Charters  of  Cities 

selves  were  asleep.  There  are  so  many 
instances  of  this  kind  in  the  history  of  Ameri- 
can municipal  government,  that  in  a  great 
many  of  the  cities  the  people  have  utterly  lost 
courage;  but  it  is  these  flagrant  violations  of 
public  morality  which  have  aroused  the  people 
to  the  present  movement  for  municipal  reform 
and  reconstruction. 

It  is  less  than  fifteen  years  since  the  first  ef- 
fort was  made  to  bring  together  some  of 
those  interested  in  improved  municipal  condi- 
tions for  the  organization  of  a  national  society, 
devoted  to  the  encouragement  of  municipal 
reform.  From  the  date  of  the  organization  of 
the  National  Municipal  League,  in  1894,  there 
has  been  an  extension  of  municipal  reform  in 
accelerating  ratio.  The  differing  character  of 
the  people  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  the 
varying  size  of  cities,  and  the  peculiarities  of 
local  charters,  have  caused  a  great  range  of 
expressions  of  this  spirit.  The  first  step  to- 
wards better  municipal  government  has  gen- 
erally been  an  effort  to  emancipate  municipal 
politics  from  the  control  of  the  national  po- 
[207] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

litical  parties.  In  order  to  maintain  party 
organizations,  the  interests  of  the  locaUties  are 
sacrificed.  In  spite  of  the  illogical  character 
of  this  domination  and  its  injurious  eiFects 
upon  the  municipalities,  it  has  been  difficult  to 
shake  off  the  control  of  the  national  parties, 
because  it  is  argued  that  each  election  tends 
to  maintain  the  organization  which  contributes 
most  to  national  prosperity.  Independent 
parties  are  multiplying,  and  there  are  many 
non-partisan  organizations  which  help  to  guide 
the  voter  in  selecting  from  the  nominations  of 
the  great  parties,  but  absurd  as  the  system  is, 
it  persists. 

Another  step  toward  municipal  reform  has 
been  taken  by  introducing  civil  service  regula- 
tions for  the  choice  of  public  officials  and  em- 
ployes. The  "spoils  system"  of  appointing 
public  servants  on  the  basis  of  political  service 
has  been  so  intrenched  that  civil  service  reform 
seemed  the  only  avenue  to  municipal  efficiency. 
The  clumsy  device  of  examinations  is  a  poor 
means  of  testing  a  candidate's  capacity,  and  it 
prevents  that  elasticitj^^  which  is  indispensable  if 
[208] 


The  Overlooked  Charters  of  Cities 

the  public  corporation  is  to  compete  with  the 
private  corporation ;  but  it  is  a  necessary  make- 
shift which  tends  to  raise  the  standard  of  ef- 
ficiency. 

Among  the  most  influential  of  the  forces 
tending  to  modify  and  improve  American  mu- 
nicipal government  has  been  a  succession  of 
excellent  mayors  and  other  public  officials  in 
different  cities,  who  by  their  energy  and  vision 
have  not  only  improved  conditions  in  their  own 
communities  but  have  stinmlated  the  emulation 
of  others.  In  spite  of  the  immense  powers  of 
many  of  the  American  mayors,  they  have 
often  been  politicians  rather  than  statesmen, 
amenable  to  private  instead  of  public  inter- 
ests; hence  the  aggressive  mayors,  from  Pin- 
gree  of  Detroit  and  Jones  of  Toledo  to  Seidel 
of  Milwaukee  and  Gaynor  of  New  York,  who 
have  led  in  vigorous  accomplishment,  have 
made  a  great  impression  on  the  country. 

It  is  coming  to  be  recognized  that  genuine 

municipal  reform  is  primarily  a  product  of  the 

extension     of     municipal     functions.     When 

there  are  more  services  to  be  performed  by  the 

[209] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

municipality,  when  the  pubhc  debt  and  the 
annual  budget  are  continually  on  the  increase, 
the  interest  of  the  voter  is  excited.  It  is  be- 
coming evident  that  the  changes  proposed  in 
the  methods  of  municipal  administration  not 
only  are  due  to  the  increasing  volume  of  public 
business  but  must  be  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
facilitate  public  administration. 

Abstract  political  theories  must  yield  to  the 
common  sense  of  democratic  administration. 

When  the  people  begin  to  see  that  their 
chief  antagonists  are  the  public  service  corpo- 
rations, it  is  next  necessary  to  convince  them 
that  government  must  be  simpler  and  more 
direct,  and  still  leave  to  the  officials  that  lati- 
tude which  is  necessary  to  enable  them  to 
compete  with  the  officers  of  the  private 
corporations.  Why  may  they  not  hope  even 
to  employ  the  overman? 

The  traditional  American  form  of  govern- 
ment is  unsuited  to  the  progressive  education 
of  the  people  and  to  the  expeditious  perform- 
ance of  public  business.  The  domination  of 
[210] 


The  Overlooked  Charters  of  Cities 

the  party,  the  remoteness  of  the  legislative 
machinery,  and  the  complicated  election  meth- 
ods have  tended  to  keep  the  voter  ignorant. 
At  the  same  time,  the  elaborate  ballot,  with 
the  simple  device  of  party  columns,  having  a 
place  at  the  top,  sometimes  aided  by  a  symbol, 
where  the  elector  can  vote  for  all  the  party 
candidates  at  one  stroke,  make  even  literacy 
unnecessary.  Recently  in  Chicago  there  was 
presented  for  a  record  of  the  voter's  suiFrage 
a  ticket  containing  six  columns  of  sixty-seven 
names  each,  so  bewildering  that  the  most  intel- 
ligent voter  could  not  be  expected  to  discrim- 
inate, but  by  the  arrangement  in  columns  a 
premium  was  put  upon  a  lack  of  intelligence. 
While  this  method  of  perplexing  the  voter 
continues,  there  is  also  the  device  of  indirec- 
tion, known  as  the  "system  of  checks."  The 
veto  of  the  mayor,  the  occasional  double  coun- 
cil, and  the  final  reference  of  legislative  action 
to  the  Supreme  Courts,  are  all  designed  to 
carry  out  the  division  between  executive,  leg- 
islative and  judicial  functions,  which  is  sup- 
[211] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

posed  to  be  the  bulwark  of  American  democ- 
racy. It  is,  in  fact,  a  primary  source  of 
American  corruption  and  inefficiency. 

The  general  tendency  in  charter  reform  at 
the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  towards 
home  rule  and  simplicity ;  but  with  even  an  ex- 
aggerated emphasis  on  the  separation  of  the 
legislative  and  executive.  This  results  in  giv- 
ing the  mayor  huge  powers,  such  as  he  has  in 
the  city  of  New  York,  defended  by  many 
people  on  the  ground  that  one-man  power  is 
the  source  of  all  success  in  the  great  private 
corporations.  It  is  worthy  of  record  that  this 
"simplicity"  was  secured  in  New  York  by  a 
charter  fifty  times  as  large  as  the  United 
States  Constitution  with  all  its  amendments. 
The  breaking  down  of  that  device  of  the  novice 
has  facilitated  recognition  of  the  admirable 
results  achieved  through  the  frank  abandon- 
ment of  misleading  American  tradition,  such 
as  one  finds  in  Galvestion  and  other  Texas 
municipalities,  more  recently  in  Des  Moines, 
and  now  in  scores  of  cities  from  Tacoma, 
[Washington,  to  Gloucester,  Massachusetts. 
[212] 


The  Overlooked  Charters  of  Cities 

The  flood  which  destroyed  Galveston  left 
the  people  of  that  city  in  industrial  and  po- 
litical chaos.  To  build  a  new  city  on  the  ruins 
of  the  old,  among  a  distracted  and  discouraged 
people,  it  was  proposed  to  have  what  is  called 
a  "commission,"  of  five  men,  to  whom  should 
be  entrusted  all  the  municipal  functions,  ex- 
cept education.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the 
term  "commission"  has  been  applied  to  this 
form  of  government,  as  commissions  in 
America  suggest  those  supernumerary  organ- 
izations intervening  to  do  the  work  left  un- 
done, or  badly  done,  by  council  and  mayor. 
This  plan  is,  in  fact,  a  reversion  to  council 
government,  such  as  one  sees  universally  in 
Great  Britain.  Under  the  pressure  of  an 
emergency,  these  cities  have  compromised  on 
a  very  small  council,  whose  performances  can 
easily  be  observed.  Experience  will  doubt- 
less lead  to  the  enlargement  of  this  council  in 
larger  cities  (the  details  have  already  been 
modified  a  number  of  times  elsewhere)  but  the 
initial  step  is  epoch-making. 

It  has  not  only  been  followed  by;  other  Texas 
[213] 


Democracy  and  the  Overman 

cities;  legislation  in  the  state  of  Iowa  has  im- 
proved upon  it.  The  Iowa  Legislature  passed 
an  act  enabling  any  city  to  adopt  a  charter 
giving  itself  council  government.  The  capital 
city,  Des  Moines,  availed  itself  of  this  oppor- 
tunity and  inaugurated  a  body  of  five  council- 
men,  one  of  whom  is  the  mayor  with  the  func- 
tions of  presiding  officer.  Each  member  of 
the  council  (elected  at  large,  not  by  wards),  is 
the  head  of  one  of  the  five  city  departments. 
These  councilmen,  thus,  not  only  represent  the 
whole  city  instead  of  any  district  in  the  city, 
but  they  are  imder  control  by  the  people 
through  the  necessity  of  submitting  every 
public  utility  franchise  to  the  voters  for  ap- 
proval, and  to  further  regulation  by  the  initi- 
ative and  referendum.  Direct  legislation  is 
made  possible  upon  petition  of  twenty-five  per 
cent  of  the  voters.  Unfortunately  the  charter 
is  encumbered  with  a  recall,  whereby  dissatis- 
fied constituents  may  demand  that  their  repre- 
sentative stand  for  re-election  at  any  time. 
This  ostensibly  democratic  device,  justifiable 
under  the  old  complicated  charters,  seems  to  be 
[214] 


The  Overlooked  Charters  of  Cities 

in  danger  of  discouraging  representatives  ac- 
customed to  the  previous  freedom  of  such 
officials,  who  will  feel  sufficiently  constrained 
for  some  time  under  the  restrictions  of  the 
referendum  and  initiative. 

The  councilmen  are  paid  salaries  higher  than 
has  been  the  custom  in  American  cities  (which 
have  usually  paid  some  merely  nominal  sum) 
but  not  large  enough  to  secure  the  uninter- 
rupted service  of  the  best  men.  Despite 
minor  defects,  the  Des  Moines  charter  repre- 
sents a  notable  advance  in  American  municipal 
government  in  the  abandonment  of  the  qld 
division  between  legislative  and  executive 
functions,  and  the  creation  of  an  all-powerful 
council,  under  the  control  of  the  citizens. 
There  has  resulted,  as  in  Texas  cities,  greater 
efficiency  and  economy,  with  the  steady  edu- 
cation of  the  voter. 

It  is  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  significance 
of  this  new  form  of  municipal  government, 
which  is  not  yet  fully  appreciated  even  by  its 
friends.  The  failure  to  comprehend  its  revo- 
lutionary and  regenerative  character  is  indi- 
[215] 


'Democracy  and  the  Overman 

cated  in  a  review  of  its  extension  which  ap- 
peared in  a  Texas  newspaper.  The  addition 
of  the  initiative  and  referendum,  which  has 
been  made  in  all  the  cities  outside  of  Texas,  was 
treated  as  immaterial,  while  Boston  was  cred- 
ited with  a  modified  "commission"  charter. 
In  fact,  direct  legislation  is  indispensable,  not 
only  to  keep  the  board  of  five  men  from  oligar- 
chic tendencies,  but  also  to  educate  the  voter, 
while  Boston's  charter  represents  the  old 
system  intentionally  in  the  continuance  of  a 
mayor  with  veto  powers. 

There  are  many  differences  in  these  various 
charters  which  are  negligible,  but  the  funda- 
mental accomplishment  of  the  new  system  is 
the  union  of  legislative  and  executive  func- 
tions. It  is  not  desirable  to  restrict  the  coun- 
cilmen  more  than  is  done  in  Galveston,  where 
all  their  time  is  not  required  by  law,  and  con- 
sequently a  superior  type  of  man  (the  over- 
man, in  fact)  can  afford  to  serve.  Houston, 
Des  Moines  and  subsequent  cities  have  unfor- 
tunately exacted  all  the  time  of  their  council- 
men  at  salaries  which  cannot  attract  the  best 

216 


The  Overlooked  Charters  of  Cities 

talent.  It  is  also  desirable  to  keep  the  council 
small,  to  elect  the  members  at  large,  and  not 
by  wards;  it  is  imperative  that  the  people  be 
given  a  voice  in  legislation  and  the  control  of 
finances;  but  the  triumph  of  the  system  is  its 
abandonment  of  the  vicious  American  tradi- 
tion of  the  separation  of  legislative  and  ex- 
ecutive functions. 

It  is  possible  under  this  kind  of  charter  or 
constitution  to  secure  the  services  of  the  most 
efficient,  to  place  responsibility  where  it  can  be 
known  of  all  men,  and  to  educate  the  masses 
to  intelligent  participation  in  government. 
With  the  untrained  and  complacent  American 
electorate,  and  the  domineering  and  privileged 
overman,  political  conversion  cannot  be  instan- 
taneous, but  American  democracy  has  wit- 
nessed no  such  contribution,  since  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution,  as  the  revival  of  council 
government  and  its  spread  through  American 
cities.  Its  translation,  in  time,  into  the  terms 
of  state  and  national  government  will  coincide 
with  the  sovereignty  of  Demos. 

217 


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